A Conservative minister has found an unlikely doppelgänger in the form of drag queen Kate Butch, one of the stars of BBC reality show RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
Tom Tugendhat briefly changed his X/Twitter profile picture to an image of Butch in drag on Thursday night, after the likeness was pointed out by a social media user.
The security minister, who last year ran against Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to lead the party, tweeted in response: “You just wait for my next act.”
That came after X/Twitter user @harvey_r_j posted a picture of Butch during an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK with the caption: “Congratulations to Tom Tugendhat on her debut on Drag Race UK.”
Not everybody was pleased with the comparison. Butch herself posted a screengrab of the two tweets, saying: “Tories don’t interact with me challenge.”
Butch, 26, is one of London’s up-and-coming drag stand-up comedians, and has played shows across the West End and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Her podcast ‘Queers Gone By’ has featured in the Guardian’s Top 50 Funny Podcasts.
She is also one of 10 hopefuls on season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which kicked off last night.
She told the show in its opening episode: “I describe myself as the Comic Sans of drag – instantly relatable but ultimately tragic.
“Like your mum's friend ‘Sue’ who has just discovered memes and then immediately had a nervous breakdown.
“I am mainly known as a stand-up comedian. I don’t do what a lot of drag queens do and put on a wig and d*** about in a pub being mean to people and call that stand-up comedy. I call that my day off.
“I'm not your classic pretty, gorgeous, model-esque drag queen – I am the dinner lady from down the street with a fleece with a picture of a wolf on it.”
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