A £50m signing from Manchester City, Raheem Sterling was once a declaration of ambition by Chelsea but he is now lost in the £1.4bn of talent that has arrived since. It is easy to forget that Sterling was the first of 50 signings under the club’s owners.
He was a Conservative party big-hitter who wrote speeches for David Cameron and worked with Boris Johnson before he suddenly jumped ship. He talks family, flags and why Nigel Farage is ‘top dog’
What I struggle to understand, I say to Danny Kruger in his office at Reform UK HQ, is why a serious Conservative, with a glittering future like yours, would defect to a party led by Nigel Farage? Indeed, the defection of Kruger, a heavy-weight on the Conservative right who served on the front bench and been tipped as a possible future leader, was seen as a major coup for Reform, catching commentators off-guard. Unlike previous deserters – Andrea Jenkyns, Jake Berry, Nadine Dorries – he was a sitting MP in a safe Tory seat. Plus, he was untarnished by the boisterous excesses of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Butwe’ve been around the houses a few times on this. He’s talked about his philosophy (Burkean), his Christianity (evangelical), thrown out words like “family”, “community”, “nation”. He’s asserted (confusingly) that the Tories are “over” but “not dead”, that politics is mostly “gut feeling … mostly vibes – isn’t it?” Now, after a pause, Kruger sits back and fixes me with a blue-eyed grin: “Humans are pack animals,” he says. “You need to know who top dog is, otherwise the other dogs fight each other. That’s what we get in Tory and Labour. Because there’s a weakness at the top.”
From the outside, the run-up to Rachel Reeves’s announcement has looked chaotic, and many see the future of the chancellor and PM in the balance
Every budget could be described, to a greater or lesser extent, as a high-stakes moment. Things can easily go badly wrong, as Gordon Brown discovered when he abolished the 10p tax rate in 2007, or George Osborne when his 2012 ‘omnishambles’ budget fell apart over pasties, and especially Kwasi Kwarteng, whose disastrous mini-budget of 2022 sent the Conservatives spiralling towards electoral defeat.
Rachel Reeves appears to have come perilously close to the turmoil of previous budgets, and that’s before she has even delivered it.
A comforting and filling mix of Korean and Italian flavours and textures that’s ideal for weeknight dinner
Share your questions for Meera Sodha, Tim Dowling and Stuart Heritage for a special Guardian Live event on Wednesday 26 November.
I am a ragu-fancier and akheema fanatic. Unlike with most foods, however, it doesn’t do to rationalise this love for ragu, because it is a mash of things chopped up so small that they all lose their texture. This might sound a bit woo-woo, but the joy of ragu comes from feeling your way through it, from the chopping and standing with your thoughts, to stirring a bubbling pot and the smell creeping under the door. A ragu isn’t just a ragu, it’s a coming-together of good things: thoughts, feelings, ingredients, time and effort.
Anti-AI and pro-beauty, Leo XIV has proved an unlikely custodian of culture – and a patron of meaningful work in a world of algorithmic slop
So, who figured that Pope Leo XIV would end up being kind of cool? Not me. Although as a lapsed Catholic I had little stake in the conclave race, I felt that there was something unglamorous, dare I say godless, about a first-ever supreme pontiff born in the US, let alone one hailing from Chicago, the same city as Hugh Hefner, Hillary Clinton and Kanye West. There were greater apprehensions beyond taste, too. Would this finally be the ordination of the reinvigorated Maga movement after the death of the compassionate Pope Francis? When Leo appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica wearing the traditional red mozzetta cape eschewed by his predecessor, it was too easy to jump to conclusions.
By the grace of God, the red mozzetta was a red herring. Very quickly, American conservatives went into meltdown over the pope’s patent anti-Maga leanings and his empathy for migrants and marginalised groups – “anti-Trump, anti-Maga, pro-open borders and a total Marxist,” fumed far-right activist Laura Loomer. That alone has been a relief. But perhaps even more significantly, Leo has demonstrated the benefits an American bishop of Rome can have for the rest of us, Christian, Catholic or otherwise: that is through his exemplary cultural leadership, and close engagement with the arts.
We have difffering views on my contribution to our book club: I see myself as its beating heart; my wife says I’m an interloper
For the first time in the history of book club, I can’t make it to book club. The scheduling conflict arises late in the day, which is galling because I’ve already read the book, and I can’t very well unread it.
Matt Smith is the ultimate bad dad in a Nick Cave novel adaptation, and the Oz prequel musical reaches the end of the road. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
Title race leader first in qualifying ahead of Verstappen
Hamilton woes continue with last-place finish for Ferrari
Lando Norris claimed pole position for McLaren at the Las Vegas Grand Prix with a superb lap in treacherous wet conditions on the street circuit in Nevada, and with it moved one step closer to winning his first Formula One world championship.
The title race leader beat the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second, but with his closest championship rival – teammate Oscar Piastri – only in fifth, Norris has the opportunity to further extend his advantage at the top of the standings.
The US Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump likely discriminates on the basis of race.
This week’s local elections are the latest reminder that when social democrats move rightwards, they’re making a mistake
Cas Mudde is the author of The Far Right Today
After more than 100 years, Copenhagen no longer has a Social Democrat mayor. Sisse Marie Welling, the new lord mayor, represents neither the mainstream right nor the far right but the Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti, known as SF). This should be a major wake-up call for centre-left parties across Europe. After more than a decade taking the wrong lessons from Denmark, it is finally time to learn the right lesson: copying the far right not only fails to turn on far-right voters, it also turns off progressive voters.
The 21st century has so far seen two simultaneous electoral developments in western Europe: the decline of social-democratic parties and the rise of far-right parties. This has created the powerful narrative that social democrats are losing votes to the far right, in particular because of their (alleged) “pro-immigration” positions. And although research shows that their voters mainly moved to centre-right and green parties, social-democratic parties have been chasing this mythical “left behind” voter ever since.
Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today
National Trust begins planting the 49 ‘trees of hope’ so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive way
Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism.
The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way.
Leading past donors including France, Japan and European Commission fail to contribute at pledging summit
Control of the deadly infectious diseases HIV, tuberculosis and malaria “hangs in the balance” after a shortfall in donations to a leading global health fund, advocates have warned.
Only $11.3bn of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria’s $18bn (£14bn) targeted budget for 2026 to 2028 has been confirmed so far.
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