Celebrities wading in... do they make any difference?

David Tennant suggested that Kemi Badenoch shouldn’t exist any more” in his acceptance speech at the British LGBT+ Awards last week, adding: I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up.”

- JOHN RENTOUL

Badenoch, the business secretary and equalities minister, responded on Twitter/X: “I will not shut up.” She called him “a rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government”.

Yesterday, the prime minister waded into the exchange, saying: “If you’re calling for women to shut up and wishing they didn’t exist, you are the problem.”

Tennant arguably made a fool of himself; he would have been better advised to focus on his eloquent defence of trans rights, which was political enough without being personal-political. Badenoch was entitled to hit back, and did so tellingly. But Mr Sunak didn’t need to get involved: how does the prime minister attacking one of the most popular actors in the country advance the Conservative cause?

What other celebrities have pitched in?