Those who went to bed on Monday concerned about the scourge of wokery awoke to good news in Tuesday’s Sun newspaper. Rishi Sunak’s new cabinet would include a minister just for them, in the form of the former work and pensions secretary – and current GB News presenter – Esther McVey.
Officially appointed as a minister without portfolio, McVey’s role would be “commonsense tsar”, tasked with “tackling the scourge of wokery”, the newspaper was briefed. She would be “leading the charge on the government’s anti-woke agenda” a government source said.
Pressed for clarification on the BBC’s Today programme about what “common sense” meant to the reshuffled government, the newly appointed Tory chair, Richard Holden, mentioned “freedom of speech at university campuses”. He was also challenged on McVey’s views on trans rights and said she was a “plain-speaking northerner” who held “various different views”.
“What Suella … what Esther is going to be doing …” he stumbled, inadvertently betraying what many believe to be McVey’s real role in cabinet: to placate rightwingers displeased by Suella Braverman’s sacking.
So what does “common sense” mean to the new minister? Some clues can be found in her record and statements to date.
Universal credit
As work and pensions secretary in 2018, McVey conceded some people would be poorer under the highly controversial and problematic benefit system, but said they could take on extra work to make up for it.
“Some people could be worse off on this benefit,” she said, adding: “If those people can work, what they will be losing is benefits, but what they have got now is work. Work will be paying. Their wage will be increasing.”
She earlier had to apologise to parliament after making “inadvertently misleading” statements about the benefit.
Challenged the next year about the benefit changes having directly led to record numbers of people using food banks, she said: “Where it hasn’t worked for people, I do apologise, that was wrong, and we have tried to make the system much better.”
Anti-LGBT education
McVey ran for the Tory leadership in 2019. During the campaign she repeated her views that parents should be able to stop their children learning about same-sex relationships. “If parents want to take their young children – primary school children – out of certain forms of sex and relationship education then that is down to them,” she said.
Labour said her remarks were “illegal, immoral and deeply dangerous”. They also provoked a backlash from several of her cabinet colleagues at the time, including Justine Greening, who said: “You can’t pick and choose on human rights and equality.”
Lorraine Kelly put-down
“Do you remember Esther McVey from her GMTV days?” Kelly was asked during a normally genial handover segment in front of a smiling McVey. “Yep. Yes I do,” the veteran morning presenter said pointedly, before moving swiftly on.
McVey later implied Kelly’s slight had arisen because she had been “promoted” to a role Kelly had previously held, a remark that “baffled” the Scottish presenter as she had had her own show five years before McVey joined.
“I abhor her stance on LGBT rights … she stands as an example of everything that is wrong with our toxic political landscape,” Kelly said.
Anti-lockdown
McVey was an outspoken opponent of Covid lockdown measures, writing in November 2020: “The ‘lockdown cure’ is causing more harm than Covid. The world cannot be put on hold, and the government must stop pressing the pause and stop button for the whole nation on a whim with all the disastrous effects this brings to our lives, livelihoods, health and relationships.”
Anti-diversity training
McVey is a supporter of Conservative Way Forward, a Thatcherite campaign group, and backed a report in December 2022 that claimed £427m was spent each year on equality and diversity initiatives. It has led some to speculate that one of her priorities in her new role could be cutting diversity and inclusion officers from the civil service.
Transport
McVey was one of 43 MPs who signed a letter in July calling for the phasing out of internal combustion engine vehicles to be pushed back to 2035. The MP for Tatton in Cheshire – George Osborne’s old seat – also backed the cancellation of HS2’s extension to Manchester, saying the project was “sucking the life out of our local transport”.
GB News
McVey was a housing minister when she accepted a job at GB News without applying first for clearance from the anti-corruption watchdog, Acoba, which it said broke lobbying rules.
She is now a regular presenter on the channel alongside her husband and fellow Conservative MP, Philip Davies.
Their show, Saturday Morning Live with Esther and Philip, has covered a mix of rightwing fare, with recent segments including discussions on banning burqas in the UK, “woke universities” and why Britain shouldn’t apologise for historical atrocities.
In September, Ofcom found the programme had breached impartiality rules during an interview with Jeremy Hunt. It ruled that the exchange between the two Tory MPs and the Tory chancellor “failed to represent a wide range of significant views”.
