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The Independent
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
From Olympians to Love Island stars: The famous faces standing in the local elections in your area
Local councillors are usually obscure figures, passionate local activists hoping to improve their areas or ambitious party loyalists wanting to climb the electoral ladder. But among the thousands of councillors standing across the country on Thursday, a few names stand out. From Olympians to ousted ex-MPs, The Independent looks at how the main parties are hoping star power will help their candidates over the line in one of the most unpredictable sets of local elections in British history. Stiliyan Petrov Stiliyan Petrov, the son of an ex-Aston Villa and Bulgaria captain of the same name, is standing for Reform UK in the May local elections. His father is Bulgaria's most capped player and he hopes to represent Nigel Farage 's party in Lapworth & West Kenilworth, Warwickshire. 'I decided to stand for election because I think it's time the working-class people and the youth of this country have a voice that'll actually represent them,' the ex-professional footballer's son said. James Cracknell James Cracknell is standing for a seat on Oxfordshire County Council. The double Olympic gold medal-winning rower is standing as a Conservative for Henley, having previously attempted to become the area's MP. He was awarded an OBE for 'services to sport' in the 2005 New Year Honours list and is promising to help Henley 'get its buzz back', according to the local Conservatives. As a rower, he has made holding water companies to account over river cleanliness a key issue he is fighting on. Luke Campbell Reform UK's candidate for the Hull and East Yorkshire mayoral election is also an Olympic gold medalist. The boxer is swapping his gloves for the chance to represent the region as the first head of the new combined authority. He is the favourite to win, according to a recent More in Common poll, in what promises to be one of the closest results of the night as Reform, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Labour all stand a chance. Mr Campbell, who won gold at the London 2012 Olympics, said Hull and East Yorkshire has 'given me everything' and that he now wants to fight for the region in return. Ollie Williams The Love Island star is hoping to strike it lucky with voters and win a Reform UK seat on Cornwall council. Ollie Williams appeared on the ITV dating show in 2020, but left after just three days claiming he had feelings for another woman. The 29-year-old sparked fury among viewers as photos emerged of him posing beside dead animals, leading to suggestions he was 'trophy hunting'. He has avoided the limelight in the years since his appearance on the ITV show, but is now standing for Reform in the Lostwithiel and Lanreath ward. 'Our freedom of speech and society has been eroded for far too long and it's time to act,' he declared. Arron Banks Self-styled 'Brexit bad boy' Arron Banks co-founded the campaign alongside now Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice. The long-standing Farage supporter is now running to become the West of England mayor for his party. Announcing his candidacy at Reform's local election launch in Birmingham, he called on people to 'vote Banksy for Bristol'. As well as close ties to Mr Farage, Mr Banks has a history of ties to Donald Trump and was pictured with him after the US Presidential election in 2016. He has cited Mr Trump's success as being the result of connecting with voters on an emotional level. Mr Banks and Mr Farage drew the interest of Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Mr Banks described the investigation as a 'witch hunt'. Mr Banks also made headlines after the tragic murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. At the time, he commissioned a controversial poll on whether her murder had affected public opinion on voting.
The Independent
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
From Olympians to Love Island stars:The famous face standing in the local elections in your area
Local councillors are usually obscure figures, passionate local activists hoping to improve their areas or ambitious party loyalists wanting to climb the electoral ladder. But among the thousands of councillors standing across the country on Thursday, a few names stand out. From Olympians to ousted ex-MPs, The Independent looks at how the main parties are hoping star power will help their candidates over the line in one of the most unpredictable sets of local elections in British history. Stiliyan Petrov, the son of an ex-Aston Villa and Bulgaria captain of the same name, is standing for Reform UK in the May local elections. His father is Bulgaria's most capped player and he hopes to represent Nigel Farage 's party in Lapworth & West Kenilworth, Warwickshire. 'I decided to stand for election because I think it's time the working-class people and the youth of this country have a voice that'll actually represent them,' the ex-professional footballer's son said. James Cracknell James Cracknell is standing for a seat on Oxfordshire County Council. The double Olympic gold medal-winning rower is standing as a Conservative for Henley, having previously attempted to become the area's MP. He was awarded an OBE for 'services to sport' in the 2005 New Year Honours list and is promising to help Henley 'get its buzz back', according to the local Conservatives. As a rower, he has made holding water companies to account over river cleanliness a key issue he is fighting on. Luke Campbell Reform UK's candidate for the Hull and East Yorkshire mayoral election is also an Olympic gold medalist. The boxer is swapping his gloves for the chance to represent the region as the first head of the new combined authority. He is the favourite to win, according to a recent More in Common poll, in what promises to be one of the closest results of the night as Reform, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Labour all stand a chance. Mr Campbell, who won gold at the London 2012 Olympics, said Hull and East Yorkshire has 'given me everything' and that he now wants to fight for the region in return. Ollie Williams The Love Island star is hoping to strike it lucky with voters and win a Reform UK seat on Cornwall council. Ollie Williams appeared on the ITV dating show in 2020, but left after just three days claiming he had feelings for another woman. The 29-year-old sparked fury among viewers as photos emerged of him posing beside dead animals, leading to suggestions he was 'trophy hunting'. He has avoided the limelight in the years since his appearance on the ITV show, but is now standing for Reform in the Lostwithiel and Lanreath ward. 'Our freedom of speech and society has been eroded for far too long and it's time to act,' he declared. Arron Banks Self-styled 'Brexit bad boy' Arron Banks co-founded the campaign alongside now Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice. The long-standing Farage supporter is now running to become the West of England mayor for his party. Announcing his candidacy at Reform's local election launch in Birmingham, he called on people to 'vote Banksy for Bristol'. As well as close ties to Mr Farage, Mr Banks has a history of ties to Donald Trump and was pictured with him after the US Presidential election in 2016. He has cited Mr Trump's success as being the result of connecting with voters on an emotional level. Mr Banks and Mr Farage drew the interest of Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Mr Banks described the investigation as a 'witch hunt'. Mr Banks also made headlines after the tragic murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. At the time, he commissioned a controversial poll on whether her murder had affected public opinion on voting.
The Independent
20-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
James Cracknell on recovering from a brain injury and the importance of asking for help
Recovering from a traumatic brain injury has been a long journey for former Olympic rower James Cracknell. But 15 years after the wing mirror of a fuel tanker smashed into his head as he was cycling in the US, the double Olympic gold medallist is close to being back to normal, following a gargantuan struggle to understand the way his injury affected his personality, mental health and capabilities. It was a struggle that cost him his marriage to the TV presenter Beverley Turner, the mother of his three children, as the damage to the frontal lobe of his brain caused personality changes, memory problems, and epilepsy, as well as leaving him unable to recognise people's faces, and losing his sense of taste and smell. But now, thanks to counselling, groundbreaking new scans that have helped identify his specific areas of brain damage and the behaviour linked to it, plus a simple acceptance that he needed help, the Olympian who once described himself as 'the man who used to be James Cracknell' is now not far off being the original James again. Speaking to mark World Head Injury Awareness Day (March 20), Cracknell, 52, recalls that after the accident: 'My ex said to me 'you've become more of you', but if I'm looking honestly at my characteristics, they're stubborn, competitive, determined and pretty unforgiving – and if those characteristics are heightened, it's not good. 'They're very good traits in what I used to do, in a sporting environment, but they're not so useful for a happy family life. 'But I'm definitely more like I was before now than I was five years ago.' Cracknell doesn't shy away from the way he could behave after the accident, calling himself 'a d***' and admitting: 'I think it's harder on other family members, because a lot of sympathy goes to the person who had the accident, rather than the people around them. So 'he gets all the sympathy but he's a d***'.' Nevertheless, although he wholeheartedly agrees he was 'very fortunate' to survive the accident, and sustain no other injuries, what frustrates him more than anything is people assuming he can't do things because of his head injury. 'The biggest thing to get over was people close to me, and people I didn't know, placing a limit on what they thought I could do compared to before the accident, and then everything I did ever since was viewed through the prism of the brain injury, rather than I'd always made dodgy decisions.' The former athlete, who won golds in the coxless fours at the Sydney and Athens Olympics, as well as six World Championship titles, admits that for many years after the accident he had a mental barrier to accepting he needed help. 'I think one of the big, big barriers, especially having done sport, is admitting or asking for help,' he says. 'Because I was so used to sorting my own problems out, I just thought 'I can do that, I can do that'. I didn't want to ask for help. 'So the first barrier for me was being able to ask for help and thinking I needed it, and actually realising asking for help is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness. Prioritising therapy and counselling is really important.' Cracknell, who successfully won compensation for the accident after a one-and-a-half-year legal fight in America, didn't have counselling until around 2018 – eight years after the accident – and says: 'What I'm not good at is if a routine changes or if we plan something, and then it changes. I feel more and more inflexible about that, which is very difficult when plans change all the time. 'I have the reaction more of a teenager than an adult. But what I'm better at now, through therapy, is being more self-reflective, and just saying 'OK, don't be a d***'. I didn't have that before – I just thought everyone else was being a d***'.' In addition, he feels his emotions were 'really dampened at the top' by the head injury – so, for example, in the past if he was having a nice time with his kids, it's occurred to him that he should have been feeling happier than he actually did. 'It definitely helps to be more reflective,' he explains. 'I think getting divorced and not living with the kids means I cherish the time I do have with them in a different way.' Another improvement is that Cracknell, who now coaches rowing, says he thinks more before answering questions – a trait demonstrated by occasional pauses before he speaks. 'That's because after the accident I really didn't think at all, I had no filter, and good or bad, it would come out. I think I'm definitely more cognisant of other people now,' he says. He still has counselling, although not as frequently, having couples 'pre-counselling' with his second wife Jordan Connell, who he married in 2021. 'My wife is American, and it's a very different attitude to therapy over there,' he says. 'If couples go to counselling here, normally it's at the end of the relationship, rather than just after we got married. It's actually very useful not to have a stigma around it.' As well as finding counselling useful, Cracknell – who has also taken part in a number of daunting endurance challenges, including the Atlantic Rowing Race and the race to the South Pole, both with his friend Ben Fogle – has recently had cutting-edge brain scans that revealed the full extent of his injury. The scans, arranged by the brain injury lawyers Coulthursts, showed significant changes to the structure and function of Cracknell's brain that weren't apparent from standard MRI images, including elevated gamma waves in his brain's face-processing area, explaining the difficulties he's had with recognising familiar faces. He explains that after the accident, he'd go to dinners and meet sponsors, but wouldn't recognise them the next week. 'I think it quite annoyed them,' he says, 'so if I was going to a dinner I'd see who was on my table, then try and get a picture of them, and work out if I'd seen them before so I could then have a coping strategy.' He adds: 'Understanding the extent of the damage earlier would have given me the tools to adapt much sooner. Instead of trial and error over 15 years, I could have developed coping strategies immediately. 'If I'd known then what I know now, so many things could have been different.'
BBC News
14-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Henley: James Cracknell becomes counselling charity's first patron
James Cracknell, the double Olympic gold medal-winning rower, has become a counselling charity's first patron after benefiting from mental health was seriously injured in 2010 as he tried to cycle, row, run or swim from Los Angeles to New York, which left him with epilepsy and a lost sense of smell and is now Riverside Counselling Service's first patron and he will take part in a special fundraising event for the Henley-on-Thames-based charity in May."I appreciate things now that I didn't appreciate, having nearly died, on a daily basis," he told BBC Radio Berkshire. "But one of the things I notice with my kids is that in their early years, I was present physically but not mentally. Now that has changed massively."Making the most of that and being present both in your head and in the room is so different. Our relationships have changed because of that." He found life harder after he retired from rowing and lost the structure sport brought but said he was initially sceptical of asking for psychological help."We would meet up at 7:30 every morning, go rowing, have breakfast, go rowing, have lunch, have an afternoon sleep and then go rowing," he added."The stresses of life after that when you have children and a job, and things are more subjective than the objective nature of sport, it does become much harder." Cracknell, who was appointed OBE in 2005 for services to sport and lives in Henley, said he only regretted not using counsellors earlier."When I went to therapy, for the first couple of sessions, I thought: why am I telling someone I don't know things I don't tell my best friend or my wife?"When you get to know them you get to trust them and know that nothing's going to leave the room and they give you coping strategies. They don't judge you."It's amazing how much it can add to your life."Cracknell is supporting the charity's current fundraising drive and will join its donors on a VIP champagne evening river cruise on 13 May."Riverside Counselling Service started out in Henley and having one of this country's most successful Olympic rowers as our patron who is back living in Henley feels incredibly apt," the charity's CEO Sophie Wellings said."We are very confident that James will make a wonderful spokesperson for our cause." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
