‘Hope winning despite culture wars’ says MP

But ‘tensions’ worry Shadow Minister

THE NATION is uniting with “hope triumphing over hate” despite divisive culture war issues, according to a Yorkshire Shadow Minister.

The MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah, warned the Government that “with leadership comes responsibility” when it comes to community cohesion as she admitted she is “worried” about mounting tensions.

She told The Yorkshire Post: “Dogwhistle politics really does destroy nations and we need to be really, really careful because with leadership comes responsibility.

“Words matter, so I think from the Government’s perspective, I see what they do and the leadership is guilty of stoking those tensions. That worries me deeply, not just as a local MP, but as the Shadow Minister for community cohesion.”

However, the supportive public response to the England football team following racist messages aimed at some black players has shown that “hope does triumph over hate”, Ms Shah said.

She added: “What I have seen is the unity of people coming together in spite of where I feel the Government is heading towards which is this whole idea of culture wars.”

Her comments come in the wake of a report from the Fabian Society, which suggested the socalled “anti-woke” agenda was pitting working class communities against one another.

The report also suggested that pointing “at an imagined enemy” is easier than putting in work to level up the national economy as the Government has promised.

However, Conservative Alex Stafford said that MPs have to understand people’s values in order to bring change.

Mr Stafford, whose Rother Valley seat had been Labour for more than 100 years before he was elected in 2019, said: “Of course the levelling up agenda is incredibly important and we’re doing a lot on that.

“But the most fundamental part of politics is you have to represent the majority of the people, you’re there to represent their views and values.

“People understand when policies go wrong or mistakes are made, but if you’re starting from a base level that we are all on the same side, we are working together for the same objective then we can get there.”

He added: “You have to be on the same wavelength, about what sort of country do we want to be, and what are the views and values we want.”