LONDON — Rishi Sunak is a massive Taylor Swift fan — honest!
The U.K. prime minister on Tuesday became just the latest British politician to try to claim some pop clout. In an effortless segue during a speech to a conference of *checks notes* middle-aged newspaper editors, Sunak declared himself “a defense champion and a devoted Swiftie.” Okay boomer.
But it’s not the first time a U.K. politico has tried to up their street cred by frantically Googling “who is a popular musician?” We rounded up the worst offenders. Look what you made us do.
David Cameron swoons over the Smiths
Nothing spoke to the Eton-educated Conservative posho David Cameron quite like the working-class kitchen-sink drama of The Smiths.
The then-Tory leader professed his love of the miserabilist Mancunian group back in 2010, even picking “This Charming Man” as a desert island disc. It earned him a stinging rebuke from Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who tweeted: “Stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don’t. I forbid you to like it.”
Not content with spoiling one great eighties guitar band, Cameron also found time to ruin R.E.M. for everyone. Thanks mate.
Gordon Brown definitely knows what an Arctic Monkey is
How best to transform a dour number-cruncher into a lovable election-winner back in 2006? Get him to pretend he likes band-of-the-moment Arctic Monkeys.
In an interview with New Woman magazine, Brown said listening to Alex Turner’s Sheffield indie heroes “really wakes you up in the mornings.”
That prompted fevered visions of tax credits-enthusiast Brown bounding out of bed with his iPod on to “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.”
The Labour titan was later forced to clarify that he’d given an ill-advised snap answer and in fact “preferred Coldplay,” which should have instantly disqualified him from public life.
Harold Wilson woos the Beatles
Politicians trying to earn a bit of clout with the yoof isn’t a new phenomenon, of course. Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously tried to tap into Beatlemania back in the ‘60s. He even appeared on stage to award the Fab Four an entertainment industry gong and then … stood around looking awkward while the world’s biggest pop stars cracked jokes.
The Beatles repaid the favor two years later by writing a song, er, directly criticizing Wilson’s tax policies.
Matt Hancock is massive grime fan, fellow kids
Long before he was a camel penis-chewing reality TV star, Matt Hancock was minister for culture, tasked with flying the flag for British success stories.
That prompted a now-legendary op-ed for the Times in which the Oxford-educated minister and MP for leafy West Sussex declared: “As a grime fan, I know the power of the U.K.’s urban music scene.”
Skepta, whom Hancock casually name-dropped in the piece, would later ask of grime stars backing politicians: “Are you lot f*cking stupid brother?”
Theresa May, dancing queen???
Embattled Prime Minister Theresa May proved to everyone she wasn’t just some awkward automaton by kinda, sorta, we *think* bounding on stage at a Tory Party conference to … Abba’s “Dancing Queen”?
Downing Street later insisted that the “dance” was “spontaneous,” and May kept up the non-stop party vibes with a crowd-pleasing conference speech that riffed on the Common Fisheries Policy and the challenges of running an “exporting business in Penarth.”
Ann Widdecombe, Cheeky Girl
At one point Ann Widdecombe was a prominent Conservative MP and even a minister. But after 2002, the politics stuff took a backseat — and she embarked on a second career as a TV personality.
As guest judge on topical comedy show “Have I Got News For You?” Widdecombe channeled Romanian music duo “The Cheeky Girls” and their immortal classic “Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum).”
Reading deadpan from a teleprompter, Widdecombe offered: “We are the Cheeky Girls. We are the Cheeky Girls. You are the Cheeky Boys. You are the Cheeky Boys. Cheeky. Cheeky.” Something to think about.
Tony Blair accidentally murders Britpop
Tony Blair did the whole Harold Wilson thing all over again as he tried to get Britpop’s brightest stars on board with his shiny 90’s rebrand of the Labour Party at a glitzy Downing Street party.
Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher did turn up, although he later claimed he only did so because he was high and reckoned he’d get a knighthood out of it.
Fellow Britpop superstar Jarvis Cocker, frontman of Pulp, was so into the whole Tony Blair thing that he wrote a song about how much he hated him and then proceeded to kill Britpop stone dead. Rule Britannia!
Teddy Taylor, Bob Marley crate-digger
“If Sir Teddy Taylor is elected to No. 10, the walls will thump to the bass of Bob Marley.” So thundered one hell of an Independent headline back in 1996.
The pinstripe suit-wearing Eurosceptic thorn in PM John Major’s side seemed an unlikely reggae fan, but the Indy confidently assured readers Marley’s “Soul Almighty” was Taylor’s latest love. “If it isn’t true, it should be,” the paper added, hopefully.
Taylor’s musical clout doesn’t end there. The MP used an intervention in the House of Commons to take a pop at “filthy” Al Jourgensen, frontman of industrial metal icons Ministry, over some colorful on-stage antics.
The Chicago band returned the favor by naming their sixth album “Filth Pig,” a record Jourgensen later described as “full of gun-in-mouth dirges of nothing but pain.” Sounds like British politics to be fair.
Nick Clegg pointlessly does a Carly Rae Jepsen song
Release the tapes!
As junior partner in a coalition with the Tories, Nick Clegg had gone from progressive heartthrob to promise-breaker in the eyes of many young voters by 2015.
But fear not! Those whizz kids at Liberal Democrat HQ had a cunning plan to get the youth vote back on side. Hear me out here: What if we filmed the deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom miming along to a Carly Rae Jepsen song at a reported cost of £8,000 and then never showed it anyone because it’s so bad?
Clegg went on to become a high-powered lobbyist for Facebook, presumably so he can suppress the footage if it ever leaks.
Andrew McDonald and Noah Keate contributed reporting.