19 August 2023 , 16:48
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Few women can claim that “in another world” they could have been married to Idris Elba – but Labour MP Dawn Butler can. She has known Idris since they were kids, and he was a regular at her dad’s East London bakery. And Dawn, 53, admits: “Yes, I have kissed Idris Elba, when we were teenagers. It could have been a big romance.
“Me and my friend Pat got excited because we got on so well and we were very close. We would have such a laugh because he’s so funny. He couldn’t get the jobs here, acting, and we had a conversation where he said that he was going to America. We were all like, ‘Yeah, go for it, go for it!’ and were very enthusiastic. In another world, I could be married to Idris Elba!”
Recalling seeing the actor for the first time since he found fame in US show The Wire, Dawn says: “I was, like, ‘Idris, everybody loves you!’” She last saw Luther star Idris before the pandemic at a party in Brent Central – her constituency since 2015. And she admits: “If we see each other now, it’s like time hasn’t passed.”
Like Idris, who is also a DJ, music is important to Dawn. She recites lines from her go-to song, Labi Siffre’s (Something Inside) So Strong, before making speeches and says that growing up, she wanted to be a wedding planner. But coming from a Black family in Leytonstone soon awakened her desire to change the world for the better.
MP Dawn Butler reveals close relationship with Idris Elba (Simona Chioccia/ipa-agency.net/REX/Shutterstock)In her book, A Purposeful Life – which is out next week – Dawn discusses racism and tells how she was particularly horrified by incidents involving her family. She recalls how she was just 10 when her teenage brother Donald was attacked by a group of white men. “My dad had passed a gang of white kids and he ran out of the door and found my brother getting beaten up.
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“When my dad came back, he said, ‘Never walk on the other side’. He wanted us to learn a lesson, and if you see something, get involved.” Her brother John, a former soldier, also faced racist abuse when he was younger.
Dawn was ambitious as a youngsterShe says: “For young Black men, every time they leave their home, their place of safety, they walk into an environment where their liberty can be taken away from them, just for being Black, just for being male, just for being young, every single time.” Dawn, who became Britain’s third Black female MP in 2005, says her heritage has made it harder to prove herself.
In her book, she claims former MP Harriet Harman and MP Jess Phillips staged a coup to oust her as the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party Chair in 2016, describing it as “feminism at its worst”. She says: “I didn’t know until the actual day when another MP was passing by me and said, ‘Dawn, they’re coming for you’.”
Dawn Butler and her father MiloAfter contacting Ms Harman prior to her book’s release, Dawn says: “Harriet regrets it and I accept her apology.” But she has not raised the subject again with Ms Phillips, saying: “She should come to me.” Keen for conditions in Parliament to improve, Dawn adds: “There are 13 Black women now. I don’t want them to go through what I’ve been through.”
Dawn, who was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 2021 and had a mastectomy the following year, is also a campaigner for early diagnosis. The MP, who is working on a podcast called Mammograms and Me, says: “I’ve survived cancer and I’m not going to keep quiet now. There are up to 12,000 women walking around with breast cancer right now and they don’t know it.
“I received a message this week from a woman who said that because of my campaign, she went for a mammogram. She found out she has breast cancer and is going through treatment now. That makes me very emotional.”
Dawn also has ambitions to become the first Black female Mayor of London, if Sadiq Khan should step down. She says: “I’d love to be able to create my vision of London, which is a part of my growing up without all the racism, but with the community spirit.”
* A Purposeful Life by Dawn Butler will be published by Torva on August 24
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