Kemi Badenoch reignites beef with David Tennant in ‘weirdest-ever’ Tory leadership campaign bid
Kemi Badenoch has launched her Tory leadership campaign by reigniting a row with Doctor Who’s David Tennant. (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images/ Tejas Sandhu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Kemi Badenoch has launched her campaign to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and promised not to “shut up”, in reference to a row with Doctor Who star David Tennant.
In a video posted to her X/Twitter account on Sunday (1 September), the shadow housing secretary opened her leadership bid by reigniting a row with Tennant after he said he wished she would “shut up” about trans people.
In an acceptance speech after being named a celebrity ally at the LGBT Awards in June, Tennant said: “Until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – while we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive (this award).”
At the time Badenoch – no ally to the LGBTQ+ community – demanded an apology but, failing to get one, she has now opened her campaign by responding to Tennant’s speech.
“No, I will not shut up”, she said.
“When you have that kind of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down, you need someone like me who is not afraid of Doctor Who, or whoever, who is going to take the fight to them and not let them try to keep us down. That is not going to happen with me.”
On X, Badenoch’s leadership bid has been trending along with Tennant’s name.
People have taken to the platform to criticise “the weirdest marketing campaign… ever seen”.
And one person wrote: “I guess she’s saving all the most deranged hatefulness for later in the campaign.”
Others labelled the campaign a “personal revenge”, and “pathetic” and the former business secretary as “incompetent”.
Badenoch is the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory Party leader, and she has promised to “focus on renewal”.
Meanwhile, leadership rival James Cleverly has said he will focus on a “family-first society” and vowed to “remake the argument for capitalism,” according to the Financial Times.
MPs returned to Westminster on Monday (2 September) following the summer break.
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