Blur and Gogglebox to Olympic gold: The famous faces who could become MPs

Published

11 months ago

May 23, 2024

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It’s not just your lifelong politicans who enter the fray when it comes to election time.

With the next general election now confirmed for July, there are already some faces in the mix you might recognise from other walks of life.

They wouldn’t be the first from the worlds of entertainment and sport to venture into politics – the late Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson won a seat for Labour in the 1992 election, as did TV personality Gyles Brandreth for the Conservatives.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was known as a comedian and actor before assuming his current role in 2019.

Here are some new candidates hoping to become MPs in July – along with one who bowed out after just eight days.

Dave Rowntree

Blur‘s drummer has been selected as a Labour candidate standing for the Conservative-held Mid Sussex seat, and is hoping to turn it red for the first time.

The constituency, covering Burgess Hill, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and the Mid Sussex villages, is currently represented by Mims Davies.

Despite finding huge success as a musician with Blur, Rowntree is no stranger to politics. In May 2017, he was elected as a Labour county councillor serving the University ward in Norfolk, standing down in 2021.

He also stood as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster in 2021, although was unsuccessful.

“The Tories have run out of ideas, and the Lib Dems have run out of steam,” Rowntree said when the news of his latest political bid was announced. “I’m running for parliament to provide the energy and vision the area so desperately needs.”

Blur played Wembley and returned to the top of the charts last year with their ninth studio album, The Ballad Of Darren.

James Cracknell

It was announced last year that Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell had been chosen as the Conservative candidate for Colchester for the next general election.

Best known for his time on the water, he won gold in the coxless fours at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and rowed alongside the likes of fellow Britons Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent.

In 2010, he suffered a serious brain injury when he was knocked off his bike in America – an incident that changed his personality and gave him epilepsy. However, he made a remarkable return to rowing in 2019, winning the university boat race with Cambridge. He also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing that same year.

Cracknell has previously been mentioned as a potential Conservative candidate and stood to be an MEP for the party in southwest England in 2014.

Now, he hopes to take over from Will Quince, who is standing down as MP for Colchester, where the Conservatives have a majority of 9,000 over Labour.

“My experience as a sportsman has taught me to set my own targets and on the way proving people wrong to achieve them,” he writes on his website. “I desperately want to be in a position to encourage people to back themselves. There is more potential, resilience and drive within each of us than we realise. Let’s back ourselves.”

He is up against historian Pam Cox, who is standing for Labour.

Tom Gray

Musician and activist Tom Gray is a Mercury Prize winner, a co-founder of indie rock band Gomez who has also written music for TV and theatre.

He is also a founder of the Broken Record campaign, calling for better practices in streaming, and chair of the Ivors Academy, the professional association for songwriters and composers.

He has long been known for his activism for Labour, and in December was announced as the party candidate in the Brighton Pavilion constituency – pipping comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who had also made a bid to stand for the party.

Labour is hoping to win Brighton Pavilion for the first time since 2005 after Green MP Caroline Lucas announced she would be standing down.

Josh Tapper

A former star of Gogglebox, Josh Tapper has been selected by Labour to run against Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, at the next general election.

Mr Dowden has held the seat since 2015 and has a sizeable majority of 21,000.

However, with recent by-elections seeing the Tories ousted in safe seats, Tapper is hopeful he can inspire change.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to have been selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hertsmere,” he said in a statement earlier this year. “Thank you so much to local members for your support – I won’t let you down. The work to unseat the deputy prime minister starts now!”

Tapper first appeared on hit Channel 4 show Gogglebox with his family when he was a teenager in 2014. He quit the show in 2017 after landing a job in the civil service.

In 2022, he also stood for selection in the North London seat of Chipping Barnet.

And he is not the first Gogglebox star to move into politics. Andy Michael, who died in 2021, was part of the show’s first episode in 2013, but left a year later when he announced he was running in the general election for UKIP. His family rejoined the show after he was unsuccessful in the Hastings and Rye constituency.

Alison Hume

You may well know some of Alison Hume’s work as a British television writer. Hume, pictured above with Tarka, a rescue dog and her campaign mascot, is the creator of the CBBC series The Sparticle Mystery and the 2005 BBC drama Rocket Man, starring Robson Green. She also wrote the 2008 TV film Summerhill, starring recent Eurovision contestant Olly Alexander, and the 2002 film Pure, starring Keira Knightley.

A trade unionist and disability campaigner, she is standing to be the next Labour & Co-operative Party MP for Scarborough and Whitby – hoping to replace Sir Robert Goodwill who won the seat from Labour in 2005 and is now standing down.

Hume is a “proud graduate” of the Jo Cox Leadership training programme, according to York Press, which says that current polling predicts she will become the constituency’s first Labour MP in almost 20 years.

“I never intended to go into politics, but after 20 years balancing bringing up three children, one with complex disabilities, with a successful career in the creative industries and a track record in disability campaigning, well, here I am,” she writes on her website.

“I will work 24/7 for a future which brings equality of opportunity, investment and a fairer, greener future to our coast and country.”

Monty Panesar (briefly)

Former England cricket star Monty Panesar announced in April that he was standing as a candidate for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain in the west London constituency of Ealing Southall.

Panesar, who played for England between 2006 and 2013, was set to run against Labour incumbent Virendra Sharma, who has been the MP there for 18 years.

Writing in The Telegraph, Panesar even said he had aspirations to “one day become prime minister”.

However, he withdrew his application after eight days, saying he needed more time to find his “political home, one that aligns with my personal and political values”.

He added: “I wish The Workers Party all the best but look forward to taking some time to mature and find my political feet so I am well prepared to deliver my very best when I next run up to the political wicket.”

Entertainment

Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia talked about modern masculinity before Gen Z was born

Published

1 day ago

April 5, 2025

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Pete Townshend's Quadrophenia talked about modern masculinity before Gen Z was born

Despite The Who’s Quadrophenia being set over 60 years ago, Pete Townshend’s themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.

The album is having a renaissance as Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia A Mod ballet is being brought to life via dance at Sadler’s Wells East, and Sky News has an exclusive first look.

As Townshend puts it, the album he wrote is “perfect” for the stage.

“My wife Rachel did the orchestration for me, and as soon as I heard it I said to her it would make a fabulous ballet and we never really let that go,” he tells Sky News.

“Heavy percussion, concussive sequences. They’re explosive moments. They’re also romantic movement moments.”

If you identify with the demographics of Millennial, Gen Y or Gen Z, you might not be familiar with The Who and Mod culture.

But in post-war Britain the Mods were a cultural phenomenon characterised by fashion, music, and of course, scooters. The young rebels were seen as a counter-culture to the establishment and The Who, with Roger Daltry’s lead vocals and Pete Townshend’s writing, were the soundtrack.

Quadrophenia the album is widely regarded as an essay on the British adolescent experience at the time, focusing on the life of fictional protagonist Jimmy – a young Mod struggling with his sanity, self-doubt, and alienation. 

Townshend sets the rock opera in 1965 but thinks its themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.

He says: “The phobias and the restrictions and the unwritten laws about how young men should behave. The ground that they broke, that we broke because I was a part of it.

“Men were letting go of [the] wartime-related, uniform-related stance that if I wear this kind of outfit it makes me look like a man.”

This struggle of modern masculinity and identity appears to be echoing today as manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate, incel culture, and Netflix’s Adolescence make headlines.

For dancer Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy, the story resonates.

“I think there’s a connection massively and I think there may even be a little more revival in some way,” he tells Sky News.

“I love that myself. I love non-conforming to gender norms and typical masculinity; I think it’s great to challenge things.”

Despite the album being written before he was born, the dancer says he was familiar with the genre already.

“I actually did an art GCSE project about Mods and rockers and Quadrophenia,” he says.

“I think we’ll be able to bring it to new audiences and hopefully, maybe people will be inspired to to learn more about their music and the whole cultural movement of the early 60s.”

In 1979, the album was adapted into a film directed by Franc Roddam starring Ray Winstone and Sting but Townshend admits because the film missed key points he is “not a big fan”.

“What it turned out to be in the movie was a story about culture, about social scenario and less about really the specifics of mental illness and how that affects young people,” he adds, also complimenting Roddam’s writing for the film.

Perhaps a testament to Pete Townshend’s creativity, Quadrophenia started as an album, was successfully adapted to film and now it will hit the stage as a contemporary ballet.

It appears that over six decades later Mod culture is still cool and their issues still relatable.

Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet will tour to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 28 May to 1 June 2025, Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10 to 14 June 2025 and the Mayflower, Southampton from 18 to 21 June 2025 before having its official opening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London on 24 June running to 13 July 2025 and then visiting The Lowry, Salford from 15 to 19 July 2025.

Entertainment

Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault

Published

1 day ago

April 4, 2025

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Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.

The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.

The charges relate to four women.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.

Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.

He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.

The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.

Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.

The comedian has denied the accusations and said he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.

He added in a video on X: “Of course, I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.

“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”

Entertainment

Tom Cruise leads moment of silence in tribute to ‘dear friend’ Val Kilmer

Published

2 days ago

April 3, 2025

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Tom Cruise leads moment of silence in tribute to 'dear friend' Val Kilmer

Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.

Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.

Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.

His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.

“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.

“I wish you well on the next journey.”

The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.

Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.

He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.

Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.

He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.

In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.

The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.