Wed 17 Nov 2021 — 6 min

The New Social Covenant Unit (NSCU) is a conservative think tank founded by Tory MPs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger. In its about page, the NSCU states its aims as follows:

We believe that the primary purpose of public policy should be to strengthen families, communities, and the nation: the associations that make individuals happy, safe and free. Given the unique threats and opportunities of our age we need a ‘new social covenant’: a restatement and adaptation of these ideas for the 21st century. - NSCU website, About >

Kruger and Cates have both written recent articles repeating Gender Critical (GC) talking points, with Kruger writing in Conservative Home¹ arguing against reform of the GRA in order to preserve "the distinction between the sexes" and Cates claiming in the Telegraph² that legal and social recognition of trans women "erases" cisgender women. The latter of these two articles received strong praise from Maya Forstater's organisation Sex Matters³^,⁴. Cates has also recently spoken in parliament claiming that LGBTQ+ organisations like Stonewall and Mermaids are "promoting dangerous ideologies" in schools by providing inclusive education materials and suggesting that schools are doing something sinister by affirming trans children's stated gender identity⁵. Cates' speech was later praised by GC organisations including Transgender Trend⁶ and Fair Play For Women⁷.

Conspiracy theories

NSCU's politics are stated in greater detail in their manifesto "12 propositions for a new social convenant"⁸. This manifesto is deeply socially conservative on the subject of marriage and family, claiming that marriage equality for same sex couples "removed [marriage's] physical basis" and that the right of couples to end a marriage had "removed its emotional and practical basis, and voided the marriage vow itself". The 12 propositions refer to the primary purpose of marriage as "regulation of baby-making", implicitly valuing fertile, heterosexual couples over all other forms of families.

The 12 propositions rail against immigration and "globalism", promoting the antisemitic conspiracy theory⁹ that "cultural Marxism", purported to be an obscure school of political thought originating from largely Jewish academics in the 1950s, has infiltrated political and academic institutions with the aim of destroying the family and Western civilisation.

Conversion therapy

The NSCU has strong ties to the Christian right, with director Imogen Sinclair also listed as an officer for The Conservative Christian Fellowship on Companies House¹⁰, an organisation of Conservative Party members promoting evangelical Christianity in politics. Miriam Cates is former director of The Philadelphia Network¹¹, which operates as Network Church Sheffield as well as St. Thomas Philadelphia¹². The Philadelphia Network has been implicated in allegation of "absurd" gay conversion therapy rituals¹³^,¹⁴.

Screenshot from Network Church Sheffield website:

Broader conservative politics

NSCU MPs Kruger's and Cates' other public political positions include:

Anti-reproductive choice, having spoken against decriminalising abortion¹⁵ and against liberalising Northern Ireland's highly restrictive laws¹⁶¹⁷.
Support for the Police and Crime Bill¹⁸, which has been widely criticised both for its authoritarian crackdown on protest and criminalisation of GRT communities¹⁹^,²⁰.
Opposing calls for the extension of free school meal vouchers during school holidays for families in need²¹

Also present on the NSCU's advisory board is self-described "reactionary feminist" Mary Harrington, who believes that "the principal task of feminism must now be to set itself against freedom and progress"²². The NSCU appears to be a deeply socially conservative and authoritarian organisation, aiming to further the bigoted politics of its founders.

The clear anti-feminist, racist and anti-LGBTQ+ politics of the NSCU, as well as its promotion of reactionary conspiracy theories about "cultural Marxism" fit well within the pattern identified by feminist author Judith Butler, wherein the "anti-gender" movement forms a part of a wider right wing backlash against all social progress²³.