Rupert Everett Plans To Run As Tory MP For East Wiltshire

Rupert Everett declared he has plans to run as the Conservative candidate for East Wiltshire this afternoon. The My Best Friend’s Wedding star was on stage at the inaugural Chelsea Arts Festival, and prompted giggles from a packed house when he playfully added he would ‘like to start the Whig party again’.

His plans follow Danny Kruger’s headline-making defection from the Conservative party to Reform earlier this week, with Kruger telling journalists the Tories ‘are over’. 

‘Our Conservative MP from East Wiltshire has just defected to Reform without telling anyone,’ Everett explained. Interviewer Hannah Macinnes – who also lives in Wiltshire – chipped in that Everett had revealed his political plans to her just prior in the wings at Cadogan Hall.

The packed-out Chelsea Arts Festival audience applauded these tongue-in-cheek plans – with audible whoops from the crowd – and Everett laughed and added that he is keen to move back towards ‘old school Conservativism’.

When Macinnes asked whether the actor had ever considered going into politics before Kruger’s defection, he joked, ‘No, because I only have two brain cells. You have to think on your feet as a politician; I can only think on my back.

‘The only good thing for me would be that I’ve already said everything that I’ve done so there will be no surprises,’ he added, referring to recent revelations in the Labour party.

Macinnes asked if Everett thought he was becoming more conservative as he grew older, to which Everett replied: ‘Yes, I’d voted Labour all my life until the election between Ed Miliband and David Cameron. Then I voted for Cameron once, and I felt in all honesty that I’d committed a mortal sin.

‘“I’m never voting again,” I thought at the time,’ Everett added. ‘This election I thought “I will vote for somebody, so long as they mention Brexit.” But none of them mentioned Brexit at all!’

Macinnes challenged the star, asking if he therefore never plans to vote again. Everett said: ‘I’m never voting again, unless some fantastic person comes clambering over the horizon. But I doubt it.’

The Hollywood star – who also famously voiced Prince Charming in the Shrek franchise – elsewhere in the interview touched on everything from childhood memories growing up in London, exploring gay Soho in his 40s and a life-long obsession with Julie Andrews.

Earlier, he declared: ‘When I was young, I decided at a certain point that I was not my parents’ son, I was Julie Andrews’s daughter,’ quipping that such a decision would be considered ‘quite normal now’.

So later working with Andrews on Shrek – and embarking on a worldwide promotional tour with the Mary Poppins star – was a dream come true. When he told Julie Andrews about his childhood fantasy, she ‘wasn’t very happy, [as] she’s very conventional,’ Everett added. But the two eventually ‘got on very, very well,’ with Andrews coming to greet Everett over the phone with ‘this is mummy on the phone’. Everett also reflected on their time travelling the world together on a ‘huge Boeing’ promoting Shrek, where they’d sit together for the flight.

Everett arrived in Chelsea straight from the West Country, where he has been filming the second series of Rivals. When he asked the crowd if anybody had watched the first series of the show – which launched on Disney+ in 2024 – large numbers of the audience responded with a resounding ‘yes’. 

‘Jilly Cooper was there; she’s a great heroine of mine,’ Everett gushed. ‘She’s an amazing woman, fantastic, adorable. I’m very thrilled to be in it.’

Rupert Everett spoke to Hannah Macinnes in the premiere event at Chelsea Arts Festival, a brand new four-day cultural festival taking over the streets of Chelsea. Today (Thursday 18 September) is the first day of the festival, with talks from Stephen Fry, William Boyd, Matt Haig and plenty more still to come. You can find the full programme on the Chelsea Arts Festival website. Tickets are still available to purchase for events at Cadogan Hall, Saatchi Gallery and the Royal Court Theatre.

See a full day by day guide to the festival here.