13 February 2023 , 11:29
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A leading Tory business figure has said he is defecting to Labour after slamming the Government for its 'f*** business' approach and for stoking the culture wars.
Iain Anderson, the founder of Cicero PR firm, said he was disillusioned with the party he's supported for nearly 40 years, saying: “It’s not the party it used to be — I can’t defend it."
Mr Anderson was named as LGBT+ business champion by Boris Johnson in 2021 but quit last year in disgust at the Government's handling of transgender rights.
He has now torn up his party membership card and said he will support Keir Starmer's Labour party.
“The first thing is the party’s relationship with business,” he told the Financial Times, pointing to Mr Johnson's infamous 'f*** business' comment.
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Iain Anderson quit as the Government's LGBT+ champion last year (iain_w_anderson /Twitter)“I’ve tried to understand why a Conservative leader could say that and nobody in the party blinked an eyelid about it.”
He also accused the Tories of attempting to sow division through the so-called culture wars to distract from their catastrophic handling of the economy.
“It was made pretty clear the plan is to run a culture war to distract from fundamental economic failings,” Mr Anderson said.
“It’s not something I want any part of.”
Mr Anderson resigned as a key advisor to Boris Johnson's Government last year in protest at the former PM's failure to ban conversion therapy for transgender people.
Mr Johnson did a chaotic double U-turn on conversion therapy, which forces people to change or deny their sexuality.
After an outrage at a leaked document suggesting he was poised to drop a planned ban, he then said he would outlaw the cruel practice - but it would not extend to transgender people.
Rishi Sunak has now said he will ban conversion therapy for all, making him the fourth Prime Minister to say he will make the practice illegal, which can include prayer and talking therapies or even exorcism in the most extreme cases.
But his Government has also blocked Scottish plans to make it easier for people to change their legal gender.