Eddie Mair scrutinises Tory MP who backs Liz Truss over her stance 'on woke'

3 August 2022, 18:24

Tory MP backs Liz Truss over her stance 'on woke'

By Maddie Wilson

Eddie Mair grills Tory MP Bob Seely after he claims one of the reasons he's backing Liz Truss to be PM is her stance "on woke".

MP Bob Seely joins Tory bigwigs, including former candidates Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat, in backing frontrunner Liz Truss to be the next Prime Minister.

The MP for the Isle of Wight told LBC: "Where Liz stands on critical theory and woke, where Liz stands on Russia and China, where Liz wants to take us in terms of a low tax economy; on these critical issues, you know what you're going to get.

"I think at the next election there will be a very clear choice between the Labour Party on the side of the union bosses rather than the workers, on the side of the EU rather than the UK, on the side of woke rather on the side of the people."

Eddie interjected, asking, "What is woke in this context?"

Mr Seely cited the Tavistock centre as an example, a former NHS gender identity clinic for children which closed down after an independent review.

The MP told LBC: "We need to confront much more a divisive cultural Marxism, which critical theory is composed of, and challenge it much more because I don't think it's good for our society."

Eddie questioned whether the LGBT+ community will have anything to worry about under Liz Truss's premiership.

Mr Seely vehemently denied this: "I think the issue here is being tolerant and respectful of all."

Eddie asked: "Tolerant? Putting up with?"

"When you've got the Tavistock Centre shutting down because it's not safe for children, that is not something that in a civilised society we should have got to," the MP said, "what we need is a tolerant and caring society.

"When you've got gender identification services that are not safe for children to use that's a problem."

While the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust has been shut down, two regional centres will replace it in London and the north-west.