V interesting read. Along with the theories posited here, I can think of a couple of other reasons why Cons might prefer to keep culture wars issues at arms length, even if they see electoral benefits from their occurrence 1/? https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1305444924813463558

2/? One is that Tory MPs, like MPs from every party, tend to be drawn from social groups who are on the liberal end of the spectrum - in particular university graduates. So holding some of these stances publicly may make some of them personally uncomfortable, or lead to

criticism or sanction from their (also graduate dominated) social circles. A second possibility concerns reputation - while "owning the libs" may bring electoral gains, being seen as too dogmatic or intolerant may cause more harm than good. So there may be a sweet spot where...

4/? Cons gain from portraying the lib-left as out of touch, but without facing severe sanction for being agents of intolerance themselves. For example, compare Reagan (gestured at prejudices from a distance) with Trump (shouting his prejudices through a fog horn)

5/? If there is belief in such a trade-off, it would make sense for Con MPs to quietly encourage culture war type fights to stay on the agenda, while seeking to avoid being too personally embroiled in them