Tennant: I want the cleverest person in the room as PM, not someone who looks good in a suit

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

I was forwarded this information in the week but, not being a subscriber to Doctor Who magazine, couldn’t verify the details until they appeared on the BBC wesbite today.

David Tennant, the popular outgoing Doctor Who actor, has offered his support to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party in this month’s edition (issue 417), and given a damning assessment of David Cameron’s Tories:

“Clearly, the Labour Party is not without some issues right now, and I do get frustrated – you know, they need to sort some stuff out – but they’re still a better bet than the Tories.”

“I would still rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron. I would rather have a Prime Minister who is the cleverest person in the room than a Prime Minister who looks good in a suit. I think David Cameron is a terrifying prospect. I think he’s a regional newsreader who will jump on whatever bandwagon flies past. I get quite panicked that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me.”

“It’s very weird that you can work in the arts – which tends to be about empathy, and understanding the human condition, and hopefully feeling some kind of sympathy for your fellow man – and vote for the Tories. I do find that inconceivable. I don’t get it. I still don’t get it when you meet actors who buy the Daily Telegraph and talk about this terrible wave of immigrants. You just think, where did that come from? Have you read King Lear? Have you read Hamlet?”

I wonder whether many other people in the arts will be weighing in on the debate over the coming weeks. Tony Robinson, Eddie Izzard, JK Rowling and others have already been vocal in their support for Labour. I expect to see and hear mutterings from, perhaps, Chris Martin, Bob Geldof, Jamie Oliver…