The United Kingdom has a new Home Secretary in charge of national security, and he’s a fan of Warhammer 40K.As part of a broader leadership shakeup at Number 10, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed James Cleverly as the U.K.’s home secretary. It’s a role that’s focused on domestic policy like policing and immigration, and the British press sees the move as a balm to right-wing elements in the government. In a statement after his appointment replacing Suella Braverman, Cleverly said his goal is “stopping the boats,” referring to immigrants who arrive illegally by crossing the Channel.But the more important thing, for our purposes, is that Cleverly is a nerd who is really into painting Warhammer 40K miniatures. Warhammer 40K began as a wargame and spun off into video games, movies, and an upcoming Netflix show starring Henry Cavill. Set in a far flung future, it paints humanity as an explicitly fascist and genocidal space-faring race fanatically dedicated to serving a zombie Emperor and waging perpetual war against dozens of factions. It coined the term grimdark, and represents a very British view of a possible hellish future.
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Cleverly loves it. On YouTube, Britain’s new Home Secretary has subscribed to channels dedicated to the hobby like Buypainted, WarGamerGirl, and the official Warhammer channel. Another eagle-eyed Warhammer fan noticed that Cleverly had boxes of miniatures behind him during a television interview, and posted a screengrab of it on Twitter.
As the posted, “keewa”, pointed out, those particular boxes are for Battle Sisters, Warhammer’s version of the warrior nun trope. In the world of Warhammer, humanity is ruled by an all-powerful psychic known as the Emperor and one of Humanity’s primary tasks is to worship him. Entire planets are given over to the care and management of the state religion. Battle Sisters are the Adepta Sororitas, an all-female division of militant religious fanatics who enforce the church’s will. They look like nuns in sci-fi medieval-style armor who wield giant swords and pistols.Warhammer 40K, and especially the painting of miniatures, is sometimes looked down upon in the greater hierarchy of nerd hobbies. That’s changed in recent decades, but the stigma still caused columnist Gus Carter to write a defense of painting little figurines in The Spectator.Cleverly was moved by Carter’s article and wrote into the magazine, which published his response. “I am indeed a fan of Warhammer,” Cleverly wrote. “Like a lot of boys, I painted and played Warhammer and other miniature wargames. When I had boys of my own, we started collecting and painting, and playing together. They grew out of it but I never did. Painting miniatures and listening to politics podcasts is my way of relaxing.”