Kemi Badenoch reignites feud with David Tennant in ‘weird’ Tory leadership bid

Kemi Badenoch, the former business secretary and a hopeful contender for the next Conservative Party leader, has released a video that targets Doctor Who star David Tennant amid their ongoing tussle over LGBT+ rights.

The video opens with a clip of Tennant from the British LGBT Awards in June. In this clip, the Good Omens star jokes about fighting for LGBT+ rights “until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore.”

“I don’t wish ill of her; I just wish her to shut up,” Tennant added, a comment that drew strong reactions from right-wing circles. Badenoch called the actor a “bigot,” and then prime minister Rishi Sunak tweeted that “if you’re calling for women to shut up and wishing they didn’t exist, you are the problem.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, now the Prime Minister, remarked that he wouldn’t have engaged with Tennant’s comments in the same way, emphasizing that disagreements should be handled with respect.

In Badenoch’s new video posted on Sunday, she firmly stated that she “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’s going to take the fight to them, and not let them try and keep us down,” she asserted.

“That’s not going to happen with me,” she added resolutely.

Ending the video with a touch of humor, Badenoch clarified the pronunciation of her last name as she confirmed she would officially launch her leadership bid on Monday at 11am.

“Also, it’s not ‘Bad-enoch’; it’s Badenoch. There’s no ‘bad’ in my name,” she explained, noting that it rhymes with ‘made’.

Many rushed to defend Tennant, celebrated as an acclaimed and beloved actor.

Others noted that it was a peculiar marketing campaign, with some calling it the “weirdest” they had seen and questioning why she would target a “national treasure.”

Since announcing her intention to lead the Tories, Badenoch’s campaign has been under the banner of ‘Renewal 2030’. The North West Essex MP promises to “fight for Conservativism again” and aims to “renew our movement” if elected.

Badenoch outlines her conservative beliefs into three pillars on her campaign website: “truth”, “responsibility” and “our country”. The latter point emphasizes that Tories are “proud of our history and reject attempts to force us into identity groups.”

This stance reflects her previous actions as the minister for women and equalities, where she controversially attacked the teaching of “political race theory” in schools. She even made a point of adding handwritten “men” and “women” signs to gender-neutral toilets at her 2022 campaign launch.

Badenoch is one of six candidates aiming to succeed Sunak as the Conservative Party leader. Other contenders include former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, ex-home secretary Priti Patel, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, shadow foreign secretary James Cleverly, and ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat.

Source: Indy100