British actor Idris Elba is reportedly being considered as a potential Labour candidate for Mayor of London.

Sources close to the political party reportedly said they were interested in the celebrated film and TV actor as a candidate 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, 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, has 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”. 

In January, Elba told BBC Radio 4 that more could be done to make kitchen knives safer to help reduce violent crime rates.

“Not all kitchen knives need to have a point on them, that sounds like a crazy thing to say,” he said, “but you can still cut your food without the point on your knife, which is an innovative way to look at it.”

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. 

Born in Hackney and currently living in east London, Elba is best known his roles in TV shows like The Wire and Luther, as well as films like Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, The Suicide Squad, Star Trek Beyond, Three Thousand Years of Longing and his recurring role as Heimdall in Marvel’s Thor films and the wider MCU.  

The actor, who was previously considered a frontrunner for the role of James Bond, has a packed schedule, with upcoming roles in Masters of the Universe – the superhero film based on Mattel’s franchise of the same name – the survival thriller Above The Below (which he is co-directing) and a role in Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled next project – a political thriller distributed by Netflix.  

Additional sources • The Sun