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Metro
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Coronation Street legend addresses future on the cobbles after 15 years
Coronation Street favourite Elle Mulvaney has confirmed her future as cobbles icon Amy Barlow. The actress, 22, took over the role of Steve and Tracy McDonald's (Simon Gregson and Kate Ford) daughter in 2010. During Elle's tenure, Amy has been trapped in a burning block of flats, tackled teenage pregnancy and more recently, was raped by her boyfriend Aaron Sandford (James Craven). The star has also shared the small screen with a number of legendary actors, such as William Roache, who plays grandfather Ken, and the late Anne Kirkbride. Being a member of the Barlow clan cements yourself as a part of Weatherfield history, and viewers will be glad to know that Elle has no intentions of leaving the ITV soap. When discussing the potential of beating Bill's incredible six decade stint, Elle said: 'It's quite the challenge.' 'I am young enough to do it, I guess. It must be incredible for someone to be here 65 years. 'All the stories he must have done and all the people he must have met. 'Who knows what the future will bring? But right now I am loving Corrie more than ever and have no plans to leave, so long as they still want me.' She continued to The Daily Mirror: 'I still can't believe I have been there for 15 years. It's hard to describe because in one way it feels that long but in another way it doesn't. 'I joined when I was just seven and I'm now 22. I was just a young kid. I am so fortunate though. I still love Corrie, where I work and everyone I work with. Want to be the first to hear shocking EastEnders spoilers? Who's leaving Coronation Street? The latest gossip from Emmerdale? Join 10,000 soaps fans on Metro's WhatsApp Soaps community and get access to spoiler galleries, must-watch videos, and exclusive interviews. Simply click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! Don't forget to turn on notifications so you can see when we've just dropped the latest spoilers! 'I am just really lucky.' Speaking about Bill, Simon and Kate, she said that they have 'had an impact in my childhood and in my life', and that 'they do become a part of your family.' However, there is one show she'd step away from The Street for – I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! 'Simon, who plays my dad, did it and loved it. Bev Callard, who played my nan, also did it so we have a family tradition,' she said. More Trending 'I'm alright with bugs and creepy crawlies and snakes. They don't bother me. But I think I would really struggle with the food and the drink. 'I'd struggle eating or cooking the meal in camp, never mind the Bushtucker Trials. I'd have to stick to the rice and beans.' Each to their own, Elle. View More » Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1. If you've got a soap or TV story, video or pictures get in touch by emailing us soaps@ – we'd love to hear from you. Join the community by leaving a comment below and stay updated on all things soaps on our homepage. MORE: Barbara Windsor's widower Scott Mitchell defends relationship with EastEnders co-star MORE: Emmerdale's Beth Cordingly reveals 'annoying' thing about working with William Ash: 'Sigh' MORE: Coronation Street star insists show 'needs' her character as she addresses return
Telegraph
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Farage's political momentum is astonishing. Voters love a disruptor
The political gods enjoy nothing more than a good psephological joke. Scheduling the biggest test of the UK's newest radical party, Reform, on May 1 is right up there. May 1 is also International Labour Day, when Socialist Parties and trade unions around the world celebrate the collective might – and rights – of the working man and woman. The flags are red, not a fetching shade of teal. In 30 days, Nigel Farage faces the latest test of his political virility. He comes to bury Socialism, not praise it. At the heady launch of the party's local election campaign in Birmingham on Friday, the leader arrived to thumping music and cheering crowds leaning out of a JCB road digger. 'Potholes,' he reminded the audience, 'are a symbol of broken Britain.' Momentum is with the Reform leader, who confounds established opinion more often than he confirms it. The United Kingdom is no longer in the European Union and Farage is now MP for Clacton, leading three other Reform MPs in the House of Commons. It was four, until an internal party row saw Rupert Lowe ejected from the party. The member for Great Yarmouth now sits as an independent. The by-election in Runcorn and Helsby and local elections across England are next. From a standing start, polls suggest Reform could win as many as eight councils, just behind the Conservatives on ten. If the party's candidate, Sarah Pochin, loses in Runcorn to Labour it will be a surprise, despite Reform being more than 30 percentage points behind Labour in the seat at the last election. The Tories are already fearing embarrassment. Two years ago you could have demanded very long odds on Farage ever making it to Number 10. Now he is now 3/1 favourite to be the next Prime Minister. The once laughable has become possible. The two old parties – for that is how they feel – are scrambling to respond. Labour has now attacked Farage and Reform twice on health and particularly the NHS, where the party's policy on introducing insurance mechanisms is vague. Kemi Badenoch said that it was 'no time for a reality TV star' (Farage has appeared on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here) in an effort to channel Gordon Brown's 'no time for a novice' broadside against the inexperienced David Miliband. Nothing is sticking. New polling for The Telegraph by Ipsos reveals that when asked who would do a 'good job as prime minister', Farage comes out on top on 28 per cent. Keir Starmer is one per cent behind, and Ed Davey two per cent. Badenoch is languishing at 18 per cent, her step-by-step approach to formulating a new set of Tory policies failing to register with voters who are still not listening to the 'natural party of government'. Reform's strong suits are clear. Voters are attracted by 'immigration under control', 'British values' and 'in touch with what people really think'. Farage is weaker on being a 'divisive figure', his closeness to Donald Trump and whether the party has the intellectual depth to actually form a government. As a disruptor, he has no competition. I went through the Ipsos numbers with Ben Butcher, our data editor, who identified just why Labour and the Conservatives should be worried. 'Labour is widely seen to be the party of the elite, with Reform trouncing Starmer with the C2DE and lower-paid respondents,' Butcher told me. The 'red wall' is there for Reform's taking, with the party polling well ahead of Labour amongst non-graduates. It is no surprise that the favourite Labour candidate in the betting markets to be the next PM is Angela Rayner, who grew up in poverty on a council estate and is often photographed having a 'crafty cigarette'. Voters are tired of posh Oxbridge types with a high moral tone (40 per cent of the Cabinet went to Oxford or Cambridge). Competence and difference – not arguments between left and right – resonate. The Conservatives have a bigger mountain to climb, lacking as they do the levers of government to take the fight to Reform. Farage is seen as divisive, but the person who is gaining most from that perception is the leader of the Liberal Democrats, not Badenoch. Looking at net-favourability scores (the difference between a positive and negative response to the party leaders for PM question), Farage is on -15 per cent, Starmer on -20 per cent and Badenoch on -22 per cent. Ed Davey is the nearest to break-even, on -3 per cent. It was no coincidence that Badenoch travelled to Cornwall to speak at the Anthropy leadership event at the Eden Project straight after Rachel Reeves' Spring Statement. The west country is the Liberal Democrats heartland. 'Ain't nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos,' said the American politician, Jim Hightower. As Davey attacks from the soft centre, Reform outflanks the Tories from the other side. The Conservative leader is on a perilous downslope, her skis pulling in different directions. Farage beats Badenoch with older voters, the working-class and lower paid people on the question of who would do a good job as Prime Minister. 'Current polling suggests Reform UK has gained support since the last General Election and this data sheds some light on why,' Ipsos Director of Politics, Keiran Pedley, told me. 'Immigration remains a key issue for many voters and those that support Farage think he is more in touch with traditional British values and more likely to represent real change than Britain's current political leadership. 'However, our polling also shows some of the challenges Farage will face too. There are concerns about his closeness with Trump. There is also a sense the man himself is too divisive – and his party too lacking in people that can run a government – to lead Britain effectively. The more serious the prospect of a Reform UK government appears in the future, the more these questions will need to be answered.' May 1 is the next stepping stone. If Reform wins control of a number of councils and any of the mayoral elections, for the first time voters will be able to hold the party to account. Governing, as Labour is finding, is much harder than campaigning. 'Let's fix broken Britain,' Farage told 10,000 people in Birmingham. 'I'm not mucking about.' The old parties that once commanded the comfortable heights of majority support are very clear that he is not.
The Independent
20-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Tories facing ‘extremely difficult' local elections, Badenoch warns
The Conservatives are facing an 'extremely difficult' challenge in May's local elections, Kemi Badenoch warned as she launched the party's campaign to win town halls. The Tory leader was also defiant about the threat her party faces from Nigel Farage's Reform UK, urging voters to remember politics is not 'showbusiness' and that 'you will have to live with what you vote for'. Voters across a number of county councils and unitary authorities in England will go to the polls on May 1, the first major electoral test since last July's election. The Conservatives suffered a crushing general election defeat last summer, and have since been overtaken in opinion polls by Reform. Mrs Badenoch pledged 'lower taxes and better services' as she launched the Tories' local campaign in Buckinghamshire on Thursday. 'We are the only credible choice: Lib Dems will wreck your public services, Reform has no experience running anything, Greens will run councils into the ground and Labour will spend, tax and waste your money, just like they always do,' she told the audience of Tory activists. In an attempt to manage expectations about the party's success in the coming election, Mrs Badenoch said the Conservatives had been 'riding high during the vaccine bounce' the last time the councils went to the polls in 2021. She added that this year would be different after the general election result, telling the audience: 'If you map that general election result of 2024 onto this coming May, then we don't win the councils like we won in 2021, we lose almost every single one. 'I think we're going to do a bit better than that, but we know that these elections will be extremely difficult.' Politics is 'not showbusiness', the Conservative leader said in a veiled criticism of Mr Farage, who appeared on reality TV show 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' in 2023. She added: 'This is not a game. This is about people's lives. This is not for us. It is for all those people out there who need credible politicians. That is what we're offering.' The Conservative leader also sought to suggest there would be consequences of voting for Reform UK over the Tories at the local elections. She said: 'These local elections aren't about me. They are about the public. What is it that they want in terms of public services? 'It is about all of these local councillors who pound the pavements every day, fixing things, making life better for ordinary people. That is what we are doing this May. 'This is not a national referendum. People sometimes will vote for protest parties, but what I'm saying now is that you will have to live with what you vote for.' Earlier this week, Mrs Badenoch scrapped the Conservatives' commitment to reach net zero by 2050, describing it as 'impossible' as she began an overhaul of the party's policy offer. The move was compared to the approach followed by Reform UK, which has sought to win over voters sceptical of the environmental policy. The Tory launch comes just days after Mr Farage revealed 29 councillors had defected to Reform UK from the Conservatives, Lib Dems and from independent political positions, as he kicked off his party's local campaign. The Reform UK leader hopes to prove 'that the polls aren't virtual', and demonstrate his party does have a foothold with the electorate during the May elections.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
D*** Pics, Orgies and KGB Honeytraps: Truth About the U.K.'s Last Conservative Government
The reputation of the British Conservative Party as an unlikely redoubt of sex-mad libertines has been burnished after a series of lurid revelations by a senior lawmaker in The Times of London. Highlights include a member of parliament getting rescued at 4 a.m. from the clutches of 12 naked women in a brothel they had been taken to by KGB agents, and a special adviser to the government going to an orgy and 'taking a crap on another person's head.' The extraordinary revelations are contained in the unputdownable memoir of Simon Hart, who served as chief whip under the ill-starred Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who suffered a record defeat in the 2024 U.K. elections. Government whips are responsible for enforcing party discipline and, as such, are traditionally privy to jaw-dropping political gossip. Individual politicians also sometimes turn to whips as a last resort to extract them from sticky situations. Hart's book Ungovernable portrays a chaotic and ill-disciplined governing party, with individuals spiraling out of control as it approaches its inevitable doom. Hart oversaw a near-record 15 Conservative Members of Parliament resign, defect, or have the whip suspended, including Matt Hancock, a senior lawmaker who was suspended for making an unauthorized appearance on the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. However it is the sexual peccadilloes of his colleagues which have inevitably attracted the most attention. In one incident, Hart recounts how a 'House employee' [as in the House of Commons] was fired after it emerged they had gone 'to a party dressed as [notorious sex offender] Jimmy Savile and ended up having sex with a blow-up doll.' On another occasion, one of Hart's team, described as a 'younger whip,' turns up to work 'with a broken rib, apparently the result of an energetic night with his new girlfriend.' Hart comments, 'Oh, to be young again!' Hart also gives an insight into how the party checks new candidates standing for election, saying that 'a fair few fail the vetting process' for sending 'd--- pictures.' He adds that one wannabe candidate claimed 'that a photo of his penis had been sent in error to a contact, rather than his doctor as intended.' The excuse was not believed and the person was not selected. He also describes how politicians are actively warned to be on the lookout for honeytraps, and says he received a security brief advising him and his team that on no account should they 'engage in a chat with any unusually beautiful Chinese women (or men, I guess).' In this context, one minister tells them, 'If you think you are punching above your weight, ask yourself why.' Prime Minister Sunak was voted out of Downing Street on July 5, 2024, after leading the Conservatives to an historic defeat at the hands of Labour's Keir Starmer.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
D*** Pics, Orgies and KGB Honeytraps: Truth About the U.K.‘s Last Conservative Government
The reputation of the British Conservative party for being an unlikely redoubt of sex-mad libertines has been burnished after a series of lurid revelations by a senior lawmaker in The Times of London. Highlights include a member of parliament getting rescued at 4am from the clutches of 12 naked women in a brothel they had been taken to by KGB agents, and a special adviser to the government going to an orgy and 'taking a crap on another person's head.' The extraordinary revelations are contained in the unputdownable memoir of Simon Hart, who served as chief whip under the ill-starred former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who suffered a record defeat in the 2024 U.K. elections. Government whips are responsible for enforcing party discipline and, as such, are traditionally privy to jaw-dropping political gossip. Individual politicians also sometimes turn to whips as a last resort to extract them from sticky situations. Hart's book Ungovernable portrays a chaotic and ill-disciplined governing party, with individuals spiraling out of control as it approaches its inevitable doom. Hart oversaw a near record fifteen Conservative Members of Parliament resign, defect or have the whip suspended, including Matt Hancock, a senior lawmaker who was suspended for making an unauthorized appearance on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Matt addresses the elephant in the room and answers the big questions dominating camp… #ImACeleb — I'm A Celebrity... (@imacelebrity) November 11, 2022 However it is the sexual peccadilloes of his colleagues which have inevitably attracted the most attention. In one incident, Hart recounts how a 'house employee' [as in the House of Commons] was fired after it emerged they had gone 'to a party dressed as [notorious sex offender] Jimmy Savile and ended up having sex with a blow-up doll.' On another occasion, one of Hart's team, described as a 'younger whip,' turns up to work 'with a broken rib, apparently the result of an energetic night with his new girlfriend.' Hart comments, 'Oh, to be young again!' Hart also gives an insight into how the party checks new candidates standing for election, saying that 'a fair few fail the vetting process' for sending 'd--- pictures.' He adds that one wannabe candidate claimed 'that a photo of his penis had been sent in error to a contact, rather than his doctor as intended.' The excuse was not believed and the person was not selected. He also describes how politicians are actively warned to be on the lookout for honeytraps, and says he received a security brief advising him and his team that on no account should they 'engage in a chat with any unusually beautiful Chinese women (or men, I guess).' In this context, one minister tells them, 'If you think you are punching above your weight, ask yourself why.' Prime Minister Sunak resigned on July 5, 2024 after leading the Conservative party to a historic defeat at the hands of Labour's Keir Starmer.
