A leading Conservative and former government adviser has defected to Labour, accusing Rishi Sunak of trying to stoke a “culture war”.
Iain Anderson, the chair of Cicero public relations, said the government was also guilty of “fundamental economic failings”.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he said of the Conservatives: “It’s not the party it used to be — I can’t defend it.”
Anderson is also currently the chair of Stonewall and served as Boris Johnson’s LGBT+ business adviser.
He quit that role in April 2022 after Johnson decided not to include trans people in a planned ban on conversion therapy - an idea that has now been dropped.
But now Anderson has gone further and quit the party all together, citing Johnson’s alleged “fuck business” attitude.
In 2018, while serving as foreign secretary, Johnson was reported to have used the expletive when asked about concerns British business had about Brexit.
“The first thing is the party’s relationship with business,” Anderson told the FT.
“I’ve tried to understand why a Conservative leader could say that and nobody in the party blinked an eyelid about it.”
He added of Sunak’s plan for the 2024 general election campaign: “It was made pretty clear the plan is to run a culture war to distract from fundamental economic failings. It’s not something I want any part of.”