Updated
Updated · spectator.com · Jun 9
Badenoch Backs Elba on James Bond, Urges More Stop-and-Search for Black Boys
Updated
Updated · spectator.com · Jun 9

Badenoch Backs Elba on James Bond, Urges More Stop-and-Search for Black Boys

3 articles · Updated · spectator.com · Jun 9

Summary

  • Kemi Badenoch used a Westminster speech on identity politics to endorse Idris Elba’s view that the next James Bond should not be made “woke.”
  • Elba had told GQ he was flattered by Bond speculation but said the character “was written how he was written for a reason” and should not be recast to fit identity politics.
  • Badenoch then shifted to crime policy, arguing more black boys should face stop-and-search because “more knives are found” and knife-carrying rates are higher.
  • She tied that stance to a broader attack on equality rules, blaming the Equality Act and hate-crime guidance for distorting policing and calling for the Public Sector Equality Duty to be scrapped.
  • The intervention sharpened her break with Keir Starmer’s response to the Henry Nowak case and signaled a harder Conservative line against what she called identity-politics “rubbish.”

Insights

The UK’s equality watchdog warns against reform. Is the government right to ignore its own expert body?
A minister uses a tragedy to reform equality law. Is this a path to justice or a political gamble?
Can targeting black boys with stop-and-search solve knife crime, or will it just deepen community divisions?