EXCLUSIVE: Baga Chipz wants you to know she’s not a Tory, and the Drag Race UK queens aren’t Boris fans
Baga Chipz spoke to PinkNews about her political views. (BBC)
While the first episode of Drag Race UK felt like a tribute to all things British, it shied away from the overwhelming discourse of our time: Brexit, Boris Johnson and the war for No. 10. Away from the cameras, the queens told PinkNews exactly what they think of the current state of our nation.
“The thing is, I’m not a Tory,” said Baga Chipz as we sat down to discuss life in and out of the werk room.
She is of course referring to the backlash which followed her Drag Race UK unveiling, when a 2017 op-ed in support of then-Tory prime minster Theresa May resurfaced on Twitter.
“I love Jess Phillips, I love Emily Thornberry,” she told us. “Not being a fan of Jeremy Corbyn does not make me a Tory.
Writing for Boyz magazine ahead of the 2017 general election, Baga criticised the Labour leader for his “record on antisemitism, his support for the IRA and homophobic terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah” – criticism she stands by.
“I was an avid Remainer, but I support Mrs May in delivering on the will of the majority,” she wrote, not exactly prophetically.
Today, Baga calls herself a centrist who will most likely vote for the Liberal Democrats in the next election.
“I like to be in the middle. If I was in America I’d be a Democrat. I think Donald Trump is scum. I think Boris Johnson is scum,” she said.
We have the worst prime minister I can think of at the moment.
Unsurprisingly, considering his past comments about gay men being “tank-topped bumboys”, Baga’s Drag Race UK sisters aren’t particularly keen on Boris Johnson either.
“We have the worst prime minister I can think of at the moment, he is a lying sack of s***,” Divina de Campo told PinkNews.
“[The government say] wages are growing the most in 10 years – yes they are, they’ve still not kept track with inflation have they? We’re still poorer than we were 10 years ago, you f***ing b******.”
Baga Chipz calls herself a centrist. (BBC)
For Divina, who recently gave Piers Morgan an expert dressing down over his refusal to respect non-binary pronouns, Drag Race UK couldn’t have come at a better time.
“The world is a really crazy place and nasty place and people need a place to just escape from it, even if it’s just an hour,” they said.
Blu Hydrangea, the sole Northern Irish queen of the season, sees Drag Race UK as a chance to draw attention to her country’s antiquated LGBT+ rights laws.
“Our country doesn’t even have equal marriage,” she told PinkNews.
Blu Hydrangea hails from Belfast. (BBC)
“People look to our country and see repression. I want to be the opposite of that, I want to be an expression. I want little gay kids to feel like, ‘I can grow up I Northern Ireland and do what I want and live my life, my best rainbow life. I don’t have to be in black and white forever.'”
When asked if she had any words for Arlene Foster, the DUP leader who is widely blamed for the lack of advancement on LGBT+ and reproductive rights in Northern Ireland, Blu’s Belfast lilt faltered.
“I don’t know if I can say it – what words can you print?” she asked.
“We’re all humans, why don’t we deserve the same rights as everybody else? If her son or daughter turned out to be gay would she expect them to get married?”
