When did Steve Baker become a social justice warrior? 

About ten years ago I thought seriously about becoming a Conservative MP. I jumped through a series of hoops and managed to get myself on the candidates’ list. Had I taken the next step, I might have been selected to fight a marginal seat and, given the party’s success in 2019, could have been elected. But in 2018, when the offence archaeologists did a number on me, I decided to withdraw and spare Central Office the embarrassment of removing me from the list. Probably just as well because if I had won a marginal seat in 2019 I’d now be worrying about how to earn a living after the next election.

I might even have gone woke, which is what a number of Conservative MPs who are worried about losing their seats are doing. At least, that’s the only explanation I can think of for Steve Baker’s bizarre tweet last week, in which he said that one of his new year’s resolutions was to be an ally to the LGBT+ community. ‘We must continue to support the LGBT+ community and continue to work to ensure that our society is one where LGBT+ people can live their lives free from hate.’ I had to read that twice. Steve Baker? The ex-chairman of the European Research Group and leader of the Brexit Spartans who stood firm against Theresa May’s attempts to reach a compromise with the EU? The MP who voted against the gay marriage bill in 2013? The former trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation and one of parliament’s leading climate realists? That Steve Baker?

Now, there’s obviously nothing wrong with wanting to be an ally to LGBT+ people. But I was disappointed to see Steve implicitly endorse the idea that members of that community are besieged by hate, which is part of the rationale for employing 10,000 equity, diversity and inclusion officers in the public sector at a cost to the taxpayer of £557 million a year. Incidentally, I got those figures from an excellent report about the woke capture of the British state by Conservative Way Forward, the chairman of which is Steve Baker. It goes without saying that Britain is one of the safest places in the world to live if you belong to the community in question. According to the Williams Institute’s LGBT Global Acceptance Index, the UK is ninth out of 175 countries when it comes to social acceptance of minorities and respect for their rights.

Why has Steve suddenly become a rainbow flag-waving social justice warrior? The only explanation I can think of is that he’s terrified he’s going to lose his seat and is doing his best to detoxify himself in case he finds himself back on the job market next year. (His majority in 2019 was just over 4,000.) Steve worked as a software engineer and a chief technology officer before he was elected to parliament in 2010 and must be worried that if he’s going to get another well-paying job in the technology sector he’ll need to shore up his woke credentials. I imagine he’s thinking about the grilling he’s going to get at the hands of a Labour-voting, pink-haired, twentysomething HR officer: ‘So, Steve, tell us why you want to work at a company committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 if you think climate change is a hoax?’ ‘Er, can I tell you about my new year’s resolution last year?’

Steve’s not alone. On Monday, Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, bragged on Twitter about having persuaded the government to bring forward a bill banning conversion therapy, which, to the consternation of gender critical feminists and free speech campaigners, looks likely to include any attempt to dissuade teens who identify as trans from taking puberty blockers or undergoing irreversible medical procedures. As the philosopher Kathleen Stock says: ‘Under the proposed legislation, doctors, counsellors and therapists could be forced to simply affirm any child who claimed to be trans, or face potential prosecution for attempting to change the child’s identity.’

Theresa May was planning to ban conversion therapy before she was ousted, then Boris Johnson announced he wasn’t going to do it, only to change his mind and say he would but not for trans people. Now, in yet another U-turn, Rishi Sunak plans to revert to May’s original proposal. The reason, I suspect, is partly because he’s under pressure from the 2019 intake to pass a piece of woke legislation they can point to as one of their ‘achievements’ when they’re confronted by the pink-haired HR officer next year.

I disapprove of such unprincipled careerism, but if the alternative was stacking shelves at Sainsbury’s I might be just as desperate. And given how much Steve Baker has done to advance the causes I believe in, I forgive him this lapse. I only hope it’s worth it.