Russell Tovey: LGBT+ community should ‘prepare ourselves’ for Reform government

Actor Russell Tovey has said the LGBT+ community should “prepare ourselves” for a Reform UK government.

The 43-year-old also spoke about his “shame” navigating his own sexuality during the 1990s, the period in which his latest film Plainclothes, which follows an undercover police officer tasked with entrapping gay men, is set.

Speaking about the Nigel Farage-led political party, The History Boys star told Attitude magazine: “In the late ’80s, there was Section 28, homophobia in all the red top newspapers, horrific politics – 30 years later, we’re now in this cyclical moment politically where people’s liberties are being reversed.

“We have to get into a position where we’re ready to go from day one when that happens, so that as soon as they’re in, we’re ready to fight back.”

Tovey said he felt “compelled to be visible” as an ally to fellow people in the community, and added that queer people being allies to people in their own community was “something we don’t talk about enough”.

Speaking about how Plainclothes made him reflect on his teenage years, the Essex-born star added: “I remember a shame I felt growing up knowing I was gay but desperately not wanting to be, because society hadn’t created a safe space for that.

“So it scared the life out of me. And I tried desperately to run away from it.

“When I acknowledged it, really, and was honest with myself, my life changed. I mean, it was wonderful. But that space of purgatory, I guess, between hell of what I was feeling and the heaven that was the other side of it, was … a lot of that was swimming around in shame.”

Tovey was speaking after being awarded the magazine’s man of the year award for his charity work with homelessness charity the Albert Kennedy Trust and HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.

The actor is best known for his role as Peter Rudge in The History Boys (2006), and has also appeared in TV series such as Gavin &  Stacey, Doctor Who and HBO comedy Looking.

The full interview can be read in Attitude’s November/December issue which is out now.

Reform UK has been contacted for comment.