Politics

‘Just desperate’: Tory pledge to ‘kick woke out of science’ put under the microscope

Science Secretary Michelle Donelan has been slammed for “making things up and then rallying against it” after she pledged to kick woke ideology out of science.

In a sign that the Tory’s culture wars know no bounds, Donelan set her gaze on test tubes and lab glasses in an attempt to whip up resentment among the electorate.

Earlier in the day, the home secretary Suella Braverman used her speech to say the Tories stand with the “many” against the “privileged woke minority”.

“We stand with the many, the law-abiding, hard-working common-sense majority, against the few, the privileged woke minority with their luxury beliefs who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers,” she said.

Warning about how under Labour “Britain would go properly woke”, she said: “Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.”

Reacting to the news on social media Mike Galsworthy, a scientist, called for the government to apologise to the science community, while Caroline Lucas called it the “latest in a string of Cabinet ministers systematically making stuff up that isn’t happening” and then “rallying against it”.

Check out the reaction in full below:

Related: UK planning to rent prison spaces from foreign countries

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Published by