Blur’s Dave Rowntree selected as Labour candidate

7 March, 2024

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree will stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election.

Announced on Wednesday, Rowntree will stand in Mid Sussex. The constituency includes Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and the Mid Sussex villages.

In a statement, per The Guardian, Rowntree said of his candidacy: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to become Labour’s first Mid Sussex MP. Residents have their best chance in a generation to make their vote count and return a Labour MP to parliament.”

He continued: “The Tories have run out of ideas, and the Lib Dems have run out of steam. I’m running for parliament to provide the energy and vision the area so desperately needs.”

Rowntree said on X (formerly Twitter): I’m absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the UK Labour candidate for Mid Sussex! Now the work begins.”

In 2010, Rowntree lost a bid to become a Labour MP representing the cities of London and Westminster. He served as councillor for the University ward in Norwich from 2017 until 2021.

Discussing Wednesday’s budget, Rowntree wrote on X: “This is the weirdest budget ever. A bunch of minor policy announcements. Is there a flourish at the end?”

He added: “What a waste of an hour. Tiny policy announcements. Fiddling with the tax system. Bogus productivity savings rather than proper funding. AI fixing all problems.”

Rowntree is now the latest musician to be named a Labour candidate. In December, Gomez guitarist and Chair of the Ivors Academy Tom Gray beat Eddie Izzard in the bid to be Brighton Pavilion’s Labour candidate at the next UK general election.

Blur’s latest release was 2023’s ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. In a four-star review of the LP, NME wrote: “Unlike many of their peers, there has never been a timelessness to a Blur album – that’s a good thing. When you listen to ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ now, you can feel disdain for the culture that surrounded them, or the raw confusion of heartbreak on 1999’s ‘13’; they have a way of transporting you to a precise moment or emotion.”

The band are due to release a new documentary and concert film charting their huge 2023 reunion later this year, and will performing at Coachella this April.

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