In the absence of the brash and outspoken Suella Braverman, someone had to continue swinging the hatchet against woke culture in the UK. And the chosen one was Esther McVey (56 years old), promoted by Rishi Sunak to minister without portfolio and already known unofficially as the minister of common sense.. Your mission? Fight this new variant of progress and political correctness that has become the bête noire of the British conservative tabloids.

The Sun was precisely the first to define what Esther McVey's exact role will be, citing Downing Street sources: “She will be in charge of ensuring common sense and directing the Government's anti-woke agenda.”. And it will also be the premier's communicating vessel with the hardline wing of his party, which continually asks for more wood and threatens day and night with rebellion.

McVey herself, a survivor in the shadows of the Cameron era, the May era and the Johnson era, has celebrated in style her return to the political spotlight after her success as a presenter on the ultra-conservative channel GB News, the British version from the vociferous Fox News.

“I don't think it's a coincidence that the Prime Minister looked for a champion of common sense and found her precisely at GB News, the home of common sense.”. “I will do everything I can not to disappoint you,” he said.

And he will obviously do everything he can to stir up the culture war between now and the 2024 elections.. In her television pulpit, along with her husband Philip Davies, McVey attacked universities for the trans cause and the historical revisionism of colonialism. And in her failed campaign as a Tory leadership candidate (she came last) she promised to end inclusion and diversity policies in the Government.

Born in Liverpool in 1967, raised during her early years in a hospice because her parents did not have the money to support her, seasoned in radio and television in her younger years, Esther McVey has a reputation for not holding her tongue. Like when he opposed same-sex sexual education. Or when he criticized “apocalyptic scientists” during the pandemic and questioned “communist lockdowns.”

The most conservative groups equate what is colloquially known as woke with “Marxist cultural dogma”. 59% of Britons recently admitted that they did not know the exact meaning of the word (literally, awake or alert). The term, imported from the United States and initially applied to social and racial injustices, has been reinterpreted by the right until it becomes a weapon thrown against the left, almost an insult.

Aware of the pull of the issue among right-wing voters, Rishi Sunak pledged in his campaign to “tackle the woke nonsense that is infecting public life”. As soon as he arrived at Downing Street, he decided to create the position of so-called director of freedom of expression, which fell to the Cambridge philosopher Arif Ahmed, known for his diatribes against cancel culture on university campuses.

The greatest ally of common sense that Esther McVey will have in the cabinet will undoubtedly be the deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who at the time said: “Woke ideology is a dangerous form of decadence in our society. In our schools and in our universities, in the faculties of social sciences and pure sciences, in government agencies and in corporations…. “We cannot renounce our fundamental values, as if the defense of freedoms were something reactionary.”