Why is Boris Johnson waging a culture war? With Rory Stewart and Kim Leadbeater (audio)

While polling revealed exclusively by the New Statesman suggests that voters aren’t divided on so-called culture war issues, the Johnson administration is putting them at the centre of its political project. To understand why the Prime Minister seems intent on winning a war that doesn’t exist, Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, who received an MBE last year for services to social cohesion, and Rory Stewart, senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Conservative MP and leadership rival to Johnson. They discuss why everything is being cast as a culture war and the strategy’s limited success, the real-life consequences of this way of doing politics, and ultimately how we can learn to disagree better. The New Statesman is the leading progressive politics and culture magazine in the UK. Our YouTube channel brings you video interviews with leading thinkers like Noam Chomsky and George Monbiot on a range of current affairs issues including politics, climate change and world news. Subscribe to expand your world-view, with progressive politics and illuminating ideas. Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer.