Kemi's bizarre Doctor Who tirade doesn't say 'winner'

Perhaps more unnerving than some of their policies is when politicians try to insert themselves into pop culture.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Liz Truss and Keir Starmer both claimed to be staunch Swifties. Rishi Sunak attempted to improve his street cred by donning a pair of Adidas Sambas, ruining the fashion staple for many. And, just last week, Angela Rayner was spotted raving in Ibiza.

Yet the latest video put out by Kemi Badenoch in her bid to become the next leader of the Conservative Party really takes the biscuit – and is, so far as I’m aware, the first time a Tory has vowed to fight a fictional character (though if Margaret Thatcher had taken on Darth Vader, no doubt she would have won).

I am, of course, talking about Badenoch’s tirade against Doctor Who. In response to a remark actor David Tennant made during an acceptance speech at the British LGBT Awards, where he urged the Tory politician to “shut up”, Badenoch stated: “No – I will not shut up. When you have that type of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down, you need someone like me who’s not afraid of Doctor Who or whoever, and who is going to take the fight to them and not let them try and keep us down.”

It is a novelty, this re-casting of the former minister for women and equalities in the beloved BBC series, provisionally titled “Doctor Who and The Badenoch”. But it is what it is, as they say in professional football and the 1922 Committee.

I don’t know how Doctor Who would even begin to tackle The Badenoch, but of all the six candidates running to be leader of the opposition (now more than ever, the worst job in politics), she’s certainly the most terrifying. As well as being the latest protege of Michael Gove, she seems to share much of his gift for phrasemaking and his thoughtful political insights.