James Cleverly seeks to jokingly dispel Westminster rumour – by admitting he is a Warhammer fan

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.

Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.

Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election

Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

James Cleverly has jokingly sought to dispel a rumour he says has been making its way around Westminster for years, by admitting he is fan of the game Warhammer.

The Conservative MP and former foreign secretary posted a selfie on X, formerly Twitter, with a freshly painted Warhammer 40k figurine much to the amusement of many social media users.

“There have been some rumours about me floating around Westminster for some time. There is no point in trying to hide this any longer. It’s true”, the Lewisham-born father-of-two and MP for Braintree in Essex wrote.

Hundreds of fellow Warhammer players replied with photos of their figurines. One, named Grace, wrote: “Honestly, of all the MPs to say this I was not expecting this.” And another said: “Regardless of politics. Happy wargaming.”

Warhammer 40K is a game of fantasy battles in which players collect mini-figurines of heroic humans, elves, orcs and other mythical creatures to act out clashes on a tabletop battlefield. While playing the battles is a huge part of the game, arguably a bigger part is the hours spent building and painting the miniatures.

Eagle-eyed followers previously had their suspicions about Mr Cleverly when they unearthed a 2012 tweet on his account showing that he’d liked a YouTube video titled: ‘How to paint Astorath The Grim? Warhammer 40000 | Blood Angels’. An X user called Ben wrote last year: “A huge day for nerds everywhere. James Cleverly is the first openly Warhammer-painting person to hold one of the great offices of state.”

Another fan noticed Warhammer boxes behind him during an interview with the BBC in 2021 and posted a picture of it on X. The user noted Mr Cleverly’s boxes were for Battle Sisters, Warhammer’s version of the warrior nun trope.

Mr Cleverly was raised in Chelmsford in Essex to Evelyn Suna Cleverly, a midwife from Sierra Leone and James Philip Cleverly, a British-born surveyor. The former army officer rose through the ranks of the Conservative party serving as home secretary, foreign secretary and education secretary.