23 h. ago ‘Our peers have come and gone. We’re still here’: Wolf Alice on ambition, ageing and why they’ve left Labour behind

They were the chart-topping, Corbyn-supporting band taking potshots at the Tories – so why do they sound so jaded about politics? As they gear up for album four, the alt-rockers explain their journey to self-discoveryPaper tablecloths, blazing sun, spitting grill, plastic chairs, dishes of tzatziki, an expectant cat sidling up to diners: we could be in Greece. “It’s like a holiday,” marvels guitarist Joff Oddie, sipping an enormous iced coffee. But Wolf Alice are not on a Mediterranean jaunt – they’re at a restaurant on an industrial estate in Seven Sisters, north London, a few doors down from the studios where they wrote their upcoming fourth album The Clearing and its chart-topping predecessor, Blue Weekend. “We used to call this street Anchovy Mile,” reminisces front woman Ellie Rowsell. “Because it smelled like fish.” That might be the tip round the corner or, thinks bassist Theo Ellis, a nearby brewery (“something to do with filtering through fish scales”). Either way, such an ...

Politics

23 h. ago ‘Our peers have come and gone. We’re still here’: Wolf Alice on ambition, ageing and why new bands are struggling

They were the chart-topping, Corbyn-supporting band taking potshots at the Tories – so why do they sound so jaded about politics? As they gear up for album four, the alt-rockers explain their journey to self-discoveryPaper tablecloths, blazing sun, spitting grill, plastic chairs, dishes of tzatziki, an expectant cat sidling up to diners: we could be in Greece. “It’s like a holiday,” marvels guitarist Joff Oddie, sipping an enormous iced coffee. But Wolf Alice are not on a Mediterranean jaunt – they’re at a restaurant on an industrial estate in Seven Sisters, north London, a few doors down from the studios where they wrote their upcoming fourth album The Clearing and its chart-topping predecessor, Blue Weekend. “We used to call this street Anchovy Mile,” reminisces front woman Ellie Rowsell. “Because it smelled like fish.” That might be the tip round the corner or, thinks bassist Theo Ellis, a nearby brewery (“something to do with filtering through fish scales”). Either way, such an ...

Politics

42 h. ago Angela Rayner 'jockeying to take over from failing Starmer' as panicking PM 'looks to placate Labour Left by axing two

Keir Starmer signalled an extraordinary U-turn on cuts to winter fuel allowance yesterday as he bowed to a growing revolt on his benches.

Events

69 h. ago Readers Letters: Starmer should have had UK join EFTA trade allies

Keir Starmer should have gone a different route in dealings with Europe, says reader

Politics

3 d. ago A moment of judgment has come at last: not just for Netanyahu but for his enablers | Owen Jones

Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza has prompted international condemnation, but many of those critics will face their own reckoning Suddenly, something is shifting. Last week, a stunning parliamentary intervention was delivered by the Tory backbencher Kit Malthouse. In a question to Hamish Falconer, Labour’s Middle East minister, he noted that “it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the slaughter in Gaza”, adding that “crimes come daily”. Given Britain was signatory to various conventions imposing a “positive obligation to act to prevent genocide” and other crimes, Malthouse asked what advice the government had taken as to the liability of the prime minister, the foreign secretary, Falconer himself and previous ministers “when the reckoning comes”.The idea of a “reckoning” is clearly playing on the minds of western politicians. Perhaps it is even keeping them up at night. This week, Britain joined France and Canada in denouncing the suffering in Gaza as “intolerable”, th...

Politics

4 d. ago Starmer and his allies spent so long attacking Labour’s left, they forgot how to govern | Owen Jones

Rehashing 20-year-old Blairite ideas that were stale then will inspire nobody. Britain is crying out for bold, transformative policy-makingJust why has Keir Starmer’s government proved such a catastrophe? This is a question that must be posed to his cheerleaders, or at least those who were at one time cheerleaders: the road from the last general election is lined with silently discarded pompoms. The idea here is not to rub their faces in a political project that is now both electorally toxic and morally bankrupt, but to determine what happens next.First off, the failure should be considered absolute. It is projected that a Labour government will drive more than a million Britons into – or more deeply into – poverty through an assault on disability benefits. The same government imposed hardship on many pensioners by stripping away the winter fuel payment, and it refuses to reverse the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, the UK’s biggest single generator of child poverty. Not content with ...

Events

5 d. ago A Labour lost in the weeds can’t rebuild this country. Starmer must regain his nerve | John Harris

Labour has good ideas and years left to change Britain. Why is it acting as if its time is almost up? Just under a week on from Keir Starmer’s latest pronouncements about immigration, plenty of people on his own side are still gripped by a queasy sense of fury and disappointment, and it shows no signs of fading away. His aides and allies will now try to gladden left-liberal hearts by emphasising gains from Monday’s UK-EU summit, and the prime minister’s remodelling of Brexit. But the acrid cloud hanging over Starmer will surely remain, and with good reason.Whatever the surrounding context – and whether or not he was consciously echoing Enoch Powell – his suggestion that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers” still sounded like a horribly calculated provocation. The insistence that the government was set on closing “a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country” was even more brazen. So was the suggestion after years of “a one-nation experiment in open bo...

Politics

7 d. ago Hackers breached M&S' IT systems 'through a contractor and spent 52 hours plundering data' before cyber attack was exposed

With hackers having worked undetected for more than two days, emergency response teams worked tirelessly to protect the beloved British store, frequented by up to 9.4million customers.

Events

9 d. ago Labour to pump hundreds of millions of pounds into 'left behind' areas where Reform won councils at local elections to see off Farage threat

Ministers are planning action as Sir Keir Starmer fights off a rebellion against his effort to regain the upper hand over Reform, which has made gains in many former Labour heartlands.

Politics

9 d. ago Revealed: Sum left by veteran Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd to his wife upon his death from leukaemia at the age of 73

The Rochdale MP revealed he was suffering from an 'untreatable' form of leukaemia in January last year and left hospital to 'spend the time I have left with my family'. He died a week later.

Events

1 week ago Trump’s border intimidation is coming for US citizens too – ask streamer Hasan Piker | Owen Jones

The leftwing, pro-Palestine streamer’s interrogation by airport officials on his return to the US shows a chilling escalation of the war on free speechWhere are all the free speech warriors on the right now? Hasan Piker, a popular streamer with 4.5 million followers across YouTube and Twitch, who has been hailed by mainstream publications such as the New Yorker and New York Times as the left’s answer to the deluge of rightwing internet influencers, says he was detained and questioned for hours by border control agents as he re-entered the US (Piker is a US citizen). It is an instructive moment. Countries that behave like this towards political commentators and dissenting voices who are their own citizens are either nakedly authoritarian, or well on the way.Piker was reportedly interrogated at length not just about Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, but his views on Donald Trump. The 33-year-old pundit – an unapologetic champion of the Palestinian cause – stuck to a message of opposin...

Politics

2 w. ago Ukraine ‘absolute focus’ for UK and northern European allies – Sir Keir Starmer

The Prime Minister was in Norway on Friday for a series of meetings.

Politics

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves takes on Labour welfare cut rebels saying system that has left people who want to work 'trapped on benefits' MUST be 'reformed'

The Chancellor and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are facing potentially the largest rebellion of their time in office over plans to make it harder to claim disability payments and go on the long-term sick.

Economics

2 w. ago Starmer calls for calm amid ‘rising tensions’ between India and Pakistan

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK and allies were pushing for de-escalation after exchanges of fire between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Events

2 w. ago Welsh Labour first minister says she is ‘losing patience’ with Starmer’s policies

Eluned Morgan says her government will move ‘to the left’ and urges UK Labour to reconsider budget cutsUK politics live – latest updatesThe Welsh first minister and leader of the Welsh Labour party has said she is “losing patience” with UK Labour and made it clear she is “tacking to the left” as she tries to counter a growing threat from Reform UK and Plaid Cymru.Eluned Morgan told the Guardian she wanted Keir Starmer to rethink policy changes on welfare and the winter fuel allowance and described the Labour party as a “messy family”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Eluned Morgan to set out ‘red Welsh way’ in speech criticising Starmer

Exclusive: First minister of Wales hoping to counter threats to Welsh Labour from Reform and Plaid CymruThe Welsh first minister will criticise Keir Starmer’s welfare reforms in a major speech on Tuesday, saying she will pursue a leftwing “red Welsh way” and put a clear dividing line between Welsh Labour and the national party.Eluned Morgan will distance herself from Starmer’s government in a speech on Tuesday billed by allies as a reset moment for Welsh Labour to counter the threats from Reform UK and Plaid Cymru. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The truth about the rival who Andrea Jenkyns mocked for her 'South African accent'

Lincolnshire was at the centre of Reform's political earthquake that has left Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party trembling after Dame Andrea won in every area of the county bar one.

Politics

3 w. ago The truth about the rival who Andrea Jenkyns said was not even from this country because of her 'accent'

Lincolnshire was at the centre of Reform's political earthquake that has left Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party trembling after Dame Andrea won in every area of the county bar one.

Politics

3 w. ago Starmer congratulates Carney and hails Canada as ‘closest of allies’

Mark Carney’s election victory in Canada came after a surge in his Liberal Party’s fortunes following Donald Trump’s threats against the country.

Politics

4 w. ago If the EU coalition is truly willing, Ukraine has a chance of defying the odds

Editorial: Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, ad hoc leaders of this ad hoc alliance, must inspire their allies as Volodymyr Zelensky has. Ukraine’s success – and survival – depends on it

Politics