Idris Elba says he won’t go into politics after London mayor rumours

Film stars taking office in the US is not unheard of (see: Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger), but it’s less common in the UK.

That said, two-time Oscar-winner and three-time Emmy Award-winner Glenda Jackson did serve as a Labour MP for 23 years and Andrew Faulds also transitioned from acting to politics in the ‘60s. However, it seems that Idris Elba won’t be following in their footsteps.

The celebrated British actor has quashed rumours that he will be pivoting towards politics, saying that he doesn’t have the “courage” for it.

Elba spoke about these rumours at the Venice Film Festival, while promoting his new film, Kathryn Bigelow’s political thriller A House Of Dynamite, in which he plays the US President.

“I think you have to give it to people that enter politics,” he said, as reported by Metro. “The life cycle and going on an educative curve to become a politician means that you have to adopt that courage really early because then you’re faced with these impossible predicaments.” 

He added: “It’s about your judgement then; it’s about what you know, what you’ve learned, what you’ve lived through, and your courage. So I learned I don’t have the courage to be in politics, that’s for sure!”

This comes after sources close to the Labour party said they were interested in the star of The Wire, Luther and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, as a candidate for Mayor of London - especially following his documentaries and activism surrounding knife crime in the capital. 

“Idris has star appeal — but he is also a thoughtful political campaigner,” a source told The Sun earlier this year, referring to the acclaim he has won for his activism and recent high-profile work tackling knife crime.  

Indeed, the documentary made by Elba, Our Knife Crime Crisis, which aired in February, made the 52-year-old actor a serious candidate for the job.

“Labour (has) a choice about who we choose to run in London. We can pick a Labour insider and try to make them famous. Or we can pick someone famous aligned with Labour. Idris would be at the absolute top of our wish list”.

Last year, Elba joined forces with Prime Minister Keir Starmer to tackle the issue of knife crime in the UK, with the launch of The Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime.   

The taskforce aims to commission research into what drives knife crime in the country, specifically where it concerns young people.  

“We need to tackle the root causes of knife crime, not just the symptoms,” said Elba in September. He described the coalition as a "positive step toward rehabilitating our communities from the inside out". 

The current Mayor of London is Sir Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate who was elected to the position in 2016. He is expected to step down before the next mayoral election, which is estimated to be in 2028. 

Khan is the longest-serving Mayor of London since the creation of the position in 2000.

A House of Dynamite heads to Netflix on 24 October. Elba will be next heard in the Disney animated sequel Zootropolis 2 on 28 November.