Drag Race UK’s Kate Butch tells Tory ‘ghouls’ to delete post comparing her to MP Tom Tugendhat
Kate Butch called Tories a “bunch of ghouls” in a social media post. (BBC Three/Getty)
Drag Race UK star Kate Butch has demanded the LGBT+ Conservatives remove an image comparing her to Tory MP and minster Tom Tugendhat, calling them a “bunch of ghouls.”
The Derbyshire drag artist, who is currently appearing in series five of the UK show, scolded the LGBTQ+ group for featuring an out-of-drag reaction image of her as part of an announcement that security minister Tom Tugendhat would be speaking at a Pride reception.
Days earlier, Tugendhat had jokingly changed his profile picture on X, formerly Twitter, to a photo of Butch, after being told the two looked alike.
Butch previously expressed frustration with the comparison in a post on Friday (29 September), writing: “Tories don’t interact with me challenge” along with a screenshot of Tugendhat’s temporary profile picture.
But after the LGBT+ Conservatives made its own post joking about the similarities, Butch branded the group and its party an “absolute ladder-pulling, community-disgracing bunch of ghouls” and demanded it be deleted.
“Ban all conversion therapy, protect all refugees, stop your baseless culture war on drag artists and trans people, then maybe realise that LGBT Conservative is an oxymoron,” the star added.
After deleting the post, LGBT+ Conservatives confirmed in a statement that it did so “because we are polite”.
The group then took issue with Butch’s claim that being an LGBT+ Conservative is an oxymoron, writing: “Being LGBT+ doesn’t mean you have to support Labour or left-wing politics. There’s no rule book on how to be LGBT+.
“Straight people aren’t told what to think, we shouldn’t be either.”
The group’s post continued by saying that “insulting people” wouldn’t change minds. “You should be able to make your argument without insulting us personally or telling us that we ‘disgrace our community’.
“No one elected you representative of our community. LGBT+ people should be allowed to think freely.”
Butch responded by saying that “nice is different [from] good”, adding: “I just don’t want people thinking I’m a Tory. Is that so much to ask?”
The spat comes in the same week that reports suggested the government is set to scrap the long-promised ban on conversion therapy.
Five years after former prime minister Theresa May first vowed to end the harmful practice, an article in The Times suggested that Rishi Sunak is now looking to scrap the ban.
Meanwhile, home secretary Suella Braverman has been widely condemned for claims that identifying as LGBTQ+ in a country that discriminates against the community is not a “sufficient” reason to seek asylum.
She then said refugees were trying to “game the system” by claiming to be LGBTQ, despite there being no evidence to support her claim.
