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<p>A poll found that Angela Rayner came top when Labour members were asked which MP they would like to lead the party if Keir Starmer resigned</p>
John Rentoul

That was the week Angela Rayner nearly became prime minister

What would it be like, asks John Rentoul, and might it still happen?

<p>‘The entire evening feels scripted and structured by someone else’s idea of romance. And love, in the end, has very little to do with choreography’</p>
Hannah Twiggs

Why I’d never dine out on Valentine’s Day – even as a food writer

<p>Epstein was not convicted last week. He was not convicted last year. He was first convicted 18 years ago. Despite this, he managed not only to return<em> </em>to a gilded circle but grow that circle exponentially, with the promise of wealth, power, and impunity</p>
Jeremy Corbyn

Tony Benn warned me 40 years ago about Peter Mandelson

<p>‘To avoid Schroders’ slow slide into irrelevance, action is required. There won’t be any deep-pocketed rescuer wading in if it isn’t taken’</p>
James Moore

How did the City let itself be blindsided by the sale of Schroders?

<p>Dominic Sandbrook says of books: ‘For a few hours, you leave the confines of your head and imagine yourself a boy wizard at Hogwarts, a sailor in the South Seas, a slave in antebellum America. No other art form can do this with such intimacy’</p>
Dominic Sandbrook

Bookworms must stave off our becoming a ‘post-literate generation’

<p>Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid dated for six years before their relationship ended messily in 2021</p>
Charlotte Cripps

Stop judging Zayn – true love is always evolving

<p>Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London</p>
The Independent View

The government is now almost powerless against Palestine Action

<p>Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. ‘In the hopes of avoiding another romantic washout, I’ll be staying home cosy and dry this Valentine’s Day, and watching a movie set in a warm climate with absolutely no rainfall of any kind’</p>
Esme Gordon Craig

Love in a damp climate: Rain made my last date a complete washout

<p>Chris Wormald was appointed cabinet secretary by Keir Starmer – and forced out by him after 14 months</p>
John Rentoul

Why is Keir Starmer so good at appointing all the wrong people?

<p>Drivers in Havana wait to fill up as fuel supplies run low (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)</p>
Mary Dejevsky

Watch out, Cuba – Donald Trump is coming for you next

<p>The UK’s spring flowers are blooming earlier because of climate change</p>
Frieda Hughes

Long after Trump and Andrew are gone, we will still have spring

<p>Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky in ‘My Girl’</p>
Dear Vix

I don’t know if I’ll ever get over my first heartbreak

President Donald Trump announced the first-ever 'Patriot Games,' which many social media users likened to the fictional Hunger Games
Alan Rusbridger

The BBC has no choice but to teach Trump a lesson about free speech

<p>Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has called on his ‘friend’ Keir Starmer to resign</p>
Anne McElvoy

Starmer must dismantle Labour’s boys’ club – or accept he cannot lead

<p>‘For decades, there have been calls for the Church of England to recognise, bless and celebrate gay couples’ <em>(LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)</em></p>
Kelvin Holdsworth

I can marry same-sex couples in Scotland – so why not in England?

<p>Britney Spears performing live – something she says she won’t do again</p>
James Moore

Britney’s back-catalogue sale shows the music industry collapsing

Spooked by AI and crumbling returns from streaming services, the world’s biggest stars are increasingly sacrificing future revenues in return for huge lump sums today, says James Moore

<p>‘It’s probably a good thing, because “post-milk generation” sounds like toddlers who have stopped breastfeeding and moved on to Fruit Shoots, but Oatly is furious’</p>
Flic Everett

Oat milk isn’t milk. Even vegans like me can see that

<p>Sir Keir Starmer has demanded that Jim Ratcliffe apologise for his comments</p>
Sean O’Grady

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is like the bigoted pub bore we should all ignore

Explore news for you

More Voices

<p>Keir Starmer speaks during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference</p>
The Independent View

Keir Starmer is right to embrace our European future

The Independent View

Keir Starmer is right to embrace our European future

Editorial
<p>Keir Starmer speaks during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference</p>
<p>Attorney general Pam Bondi testifies before the House Judiciary Committee about the handling of the Epstein files</p>
Voices

Millions more Epstein files are coming – and powerful men are worried

<p>US president Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC</p>
Voices

Trump’s attack on the BBC is a harbinger of much worse to come

<p>Improved certainty after Rachel Reeves’s Budget may have helped drive a spending rise</p>
Voices

The numbers that show the economy might be doing better than you think

<p>Many feel discussions about fertility and birth rates are transforming The Handmaid's Tale from fantasy into fact</p>
Health & Families

France’s ‘offensive’ baby push ignores pressures on women, say readers

<p>Many feel discussions about fertility and birth rates are transforming The Handmaid's Tale from fantasy into fact</p>
Health & Families

France’s ‘offensive’ baby push ignores pressures on women, say readers

<p>The City isn’t enamoured with Rachel Reeves, but they think the alternatives are much worse</p>
The Independent View

Only an EU reset can save our flatlining economy from the doldrums

<p>‘Who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?’ Matt Goodwin, left, pictured with Reform leader Nigel Farage</p>
Voices

Oh great, Reform’s fascinating men have yet more opinions about women

Most commented

Trans people facing ‘workers’ rights crisis’ after latest ruling, campaigners says

242 comments

Palestine Action terror ban ruled unlawful by High Court

416 comments

Starmer: Britain can’t rely on Donald Trump – our security depends on Europe

282 comments

Trump still ‘serious’ about Greenland says Danish PM — Munich conference latest

720 comments
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More Voices

<p>Times Square in New York City</p>
Americas

‘It’s not embarrassing, it’s dangerous’: Readers on holidays in the US

<p>Editor-in-chief Paul Dacre slunk low in the witness box as he whispered his evidence in the long-running case of Prince Harry vs the publishers of his own newspaper group </p>
Voices

‘I must have been away’: Paul Dacre is The Man Who Wasn’t There

<p>Constance Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, were jailed for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, Victoria </p>
The Independent View

Victoria Marten was a victim of our child safeguarding failures

<p>‘I fear that Lægreid sees this whole thing as a big romantic gesture. The only problem is that it’s about as romantic as, well, skiing while holding a gun. As romantic gestures go, it’s a massive backfire’</p>
Voices

Diddums! Give the Olympic love cheat gold for cringiest confession

<p>Keir Starmer ‘did better than he might have done by showing some fight and getting through the half-hour without bursting into tears’ </p>
Voices

Starmer responded to attacks from all sides with anger… but no answers

<p>’How many national leaders will be tempted to ask themselves why, if the US can mount such unilateral action against a sovereign country in pursuit of what it may justify in terms of its own national security, they should not do the same?’</p>
Voices

How the capture of Nicolas Maduro will upend the global order

<p>‘I fear that Lægreid sees this whole thing as a big romantic gesture. The only problem is that it’s about as romantic as, well, skiing while holding a gun. As romantic gestures go, it’s a massive backfire’</p>
Voices

Diddums! Give the Olympic love cheat gold for cringiest confession

<p>Keir Starmer ‘did better than he might have done by showing some fight and getting through the half-hour without bursting into tears’ </p>
Voices

Starmer responded to attacks from all sides with anger… but no answers

<p>’How many national leaders will be tempted to ask themselves why, if the US can mount such unilateral action against a sovereign country in pursuit of what it may justify in terms of its own national security, they should not do the same?’</p>
Voices

How the capture of Nicolas Maduro will upend the global order

<p>Green Party hopeful Hannah Spencer described Levenshulme, one of the main towns in the Gorton and Denton constituency she hopes to represent, as having a high street full of “money-laundering takeaways”</p>
Voices

Oops! Like Hannah Spencer, I ran in a constituency I had badmouthed…

Voices

Oops! Like Hannah Spencer, I ran in a constituency I had badmouthed…

Iain Dale
<p>Green Party hopeful Hannah Spencer described Levenshulme, one of the main towns in the Gorton and Denton constituency she hopes to represent, as having a high street full of “money-laundering takeaways”</p>
<p>The Conservatives have accused Labour of treating motorists ‘like a cash machine’ amid reports that drivers of electric vehicles could face a new pay-per-mile tax in Rachel Reeves’s Budget</p>
Electric Vehicles

The pay-per-mile eVED tax on electric vehicles is coming

<p>Hair apparent: Angela Rayner gets her tresses pampered</p>
Voices

The race to replace Starmer is still on… and Rayner is ready to strike

<p>BP has halted its shares buyback after profit slump</p>
Voices

Is energy giant BP running out of gas?

<p>Is it okay to get rid of your dog when you have a baby?</p>
Lifestyle

Readers clash over giving up dogs after having a baby

<p>Is it okay to get rid of your dog when you have a baby?</p>
Lifestyle

Readers clash over giving up dogs after having a baby

<p>Donald Trump keeps suggesting it is time to move on from the Epstein files</p>
The Independent View

Epstein’s survivors are fighting yet another cover-up

<p>Matthew Doyle, who himself is not being accused of anything unlawful, quit his job last March because of his past association with someone who has admitted possession of obscene images of children </p>
Voices

In Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s lamentable judgement is clear once again

<p>When <em>was</em> the last time anyone spotted the Reform UK leader ‘at work’ in his own constituency of Clacton-on-Sea?</p>
Voices

Nigel Farage is a WFH icon – I can just picture him at his ‘home desk’

<p>Keir Starmer has held on... for now</p>
Voices

Why the coup that never was could be exactly what Starmer needed

<p>Who, if anyone, should replace Starmer as Labour leader?</p>
UK Politics

Poll: If Starmer were forced to step aside, who should lead Labour?

<p>Government officials are looking to attract more ethnic minorities to live in and visit the British countryside</p>
Voices

Is the UK countryside racist? In parts of it... yes

<p>Keir Starmer with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who has called on the prime minister to resign </p>
The Independent View

Sir Keir is the loneliest PM – but he must stay in office

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign after a series of political scandals</p>
Voices

Keir Starmer’s dizzying fall shows the UK is now becoming ungovernable

<p>The former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, spent a decade as a UK trade envoy</p>
Voices

Will trade emails, not the Epstein scandal, finish off Air Miles Andy?

<p>Team GB’s Bruce Mouat in the curling, which is a hit at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics</p>
Voices

Curling is not boring – it’s my surprise Winter Olympics obsession

<p>‘It’s not some fad. I am generally worried about my daughters’ nutrient-deficient diet – that fussy eating again – and how it might affect their gut health’ (Alamy/PA)</p>
Voices

Help! My children’s supplements are bankrupting me

Voices

Help! My children’s supplements are bankrupting me

Charlotte Cripps
<p>‘It’s not some fad. I am generally worried about my daughters’ nutrient-deficient diet – that fussy eating again – and how it might affect their gut health’ (Alamy/PA)</p>
<p>Margot Robbie stars in Emerald Fennell’s hotly anticipated Wuthering Heights adaptation</p>
Books

Readers on Wuthering Heights: a ‘masterpiece’ films rarely capture

<p>‘I am not sure if even then I completely believed Jackson was wholly innocent, but being honest, I think I chose to look the other way because the music was just too good’</p>
Voices

My nine-year-old son loves Michael Jackson. How do I get him to stop?

<p>Jimmy Lai, who is due to be sentenced for sedition by the Chinese authorities</p>
The Independent View

Powers that believe in democracy should rally to Jimmy Lai’s cause

<p>Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has taken responsibility for recommending Peter Mandelson to be the UK’s ambassador to Washington </p>
Voices

McSweeney’s departure pushes Starmer a step closer to the exit

<p>Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has taken responsibility for recommending Peter Mandelson to be the UK’s ambassador to Washington </p>
Voices

McSweeney’s departure pushes Starmer a step closer to the exit

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage with US president Donald Trump</p>
Voices

Farage’s friendship with Trump is becoming his biggest vulnerability

<p>Soldiers block access for Palestinians to an area for harvesting olives in the West Bank</p>
Voices

In the West Bank, this nightmare for Palestinians needs ending

<p>Keir Starmer has made lapses of judgement but that does not mean he should resign </p>
The Independent View

Keir Starmer showed poor judgement, but talk of change is premature

<p>Keir Starmer has one highly risky trick up his sleeve that would likely silence his Labour critics</p>
Voices

Will Keir Starmer use his nuclear option to try to cling to office?

<p>Jeffrey Epstein, Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor</p>
Voices

The Epstein crisis has exposed rotten state of the UK’s constitution

<p>Many Americans thought it was unthinkable that a US president could be as aggressive as Donald Trump has been</p>
Voices

As an American, I just want to say sorry

<p>Any teenager who can endlessly scroll without limits is going to be put into a situation where trouble or harm is more likely</p>
Voices

I’m 14 years old – please don’t take my TikTok away

<p>Given the prime minister’s ethics adviser found that Angela Rayner ‘had acted with integrity’, her allies believe that she could, in time, make a Cabinet comeback and win a leadership contest</p>
Voices

Is Angela Rayner really ready to march on Starmer’s Westminster?

<p>A screen displayed in a cryptocurrency exchange office in Hong Kong features an image of US president Donald Trump holding cryptocurrency coins, 12 March 2025</p>
Voices

The great crypto-crash has just begun – and it’s going to get worse

<p>Sir Elton John is appearing alongside his husband David Furnish in a High Court trial against the Daily Mail’s publisher</p>
Voices

Hopping mad, Sgt Elton John spat bullets in the witness box

<p>‘Keir Starmer’s defence of his part in the Epstein/Mandelson affair was a weak mix of claimed ignorance and realpolitik’ </p>
Voices

I’m appalled at how easily powerful men ignore what Epstein did

Voices

I’m appalled at how easily powerful men ignore what Epstein did

Emily Sheffield
<p>‘Keir Starmer’s defence of his part in the Epstein/Mandelson affair was a weak mix of claimed ignorance and realpolitik’ </p>
<p>There can be few who are undaunted by the prospect of leaving college with debts running into the tens of thousands of pounds</p>
The Independent View

It’s time the student loans system was abolished

<p>Fireworks explode in the sky to bring in the New Year around the London Eye and the Elizabeth Tower</p>
Voices

Refurbishing the Palace of Westminster would revive ‘can-do’ Britain

<p>Matthew Goodwin, on the election stump with Reform leader Nigel Farage</p>
Voices

Is Matthew Goodwin too rabid even for Reform?

<p>Frieda Hughes’ new car</p>
Voices

After years of lusting, I can afford my dream car... albeit secondhand

<p>Frieda Hughes’ new car</p>
Voices

After years of lusting, I can afford my dream car... albeit secondhand

<p>‘Mandelson via Epstein was serving not the UK, but the other side. Not the Russians, the usual foe, but the banks’</p>
Voices

Epstein was in effect a secret member of the British cabinet

<p>A photograph appearing to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouched over an unidentified woman which has been released in the latest disclosure of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein</p>
Voices

Why do I feel like the only man outraged by the Epstein files?

<p>Georgina Fuller and her son Eddie at Legoland Dubai</p>
Voices

Why shouldn’t my autistic son ‘skip the queue’ at Alton Towers?

<p>Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet in Alaska, 2025</p>
Voices

Don’t panic! The end of New Start won’t trigger a new arms race… yet

The Independent View

If a miserable Starmer is to survive, he must show leadership

<p>King Charles (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)</p>
Voices

A personal design for life, according to King Charles

<p>Morgan McSweeney, here with Keir Starmer, has a lot to answer for – but so does his boss</p>
Voices

If I were Morgan McSweeney, I’d fear being knifed by Starmer

<p>The newsreader Jan Leeming complained that noisy children had ruined the lunch she’d paid for</p>
Voices

The only thing worse than children in restaurants is other adults

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer addresses the Mandelson scandal</p>
Voices

What is keeping Keir Starmer in place is the lack of a successor

<p>Angela Rayner shocked observers by siding with the Tories</p>
UK Politics

‘Starmer has to go’: Readers on Mandelson files and Labour infighting

<p>Ofcom has launched new guidance for technology firms on the steps they should take to keep women safe online</p>
Voices

I can’t believe what a nasty troll said to me online

Voices

I can’t believe what a nasty troll said to me online

Victoria Richards
<p>Ofcom has launched new guidance for technology firms on the steps they should take to keep women safe online</p>
<p>Christine Keeler, the party girl who played a central role in the Profumo affair, outside Marylebone Court, where in 1963 she was tried for perjury and conspiring to obstruct the course of justice</p>
Voices

Epstein will go down as an even bigger scandal than the Profumo affair

The Independent View

Keir Starmer cannot afford to break his promise of transparency

<p>There has been a rapid adoption of GLP-1 medication</p>
Health

‘Thin isn’t everything’: Readers on living with Ozempic side effects

<p>‘Bateman’s knee-jerk response of, essentially, “You just haven’t met the right guy yet!” when presented with a grown woman declaring that she’d rather stay child-free, remains frustratingly predictable’</p>
Voices

Men! Stop telling childfree women they ‘haven’t found the right guy’

<p>‘Bateman’s knee-jerk response of, essentially, “You just haven’t met the right guy yet!” when presented with a grown woman declaring that she’d rather stay child-free, remains frustratingly predictable’</p>
Voices

Men! Stop telling childfree women they ‘haven’t found the right guy’

<p>‘Only a few hours after the release of the latest damning Epstein files, which shared further unsavoury details of his antics, Andrew was photographed on horseback in Windsor, looking as if he owned the place’</p>
Voices

Andrew’s exile to Marsh Farm is the punishment he deserves

<p>Peter Mandelson, here announcing his resignation from government in 2004, is implicated in the Epstein files</p>
Voices

Mandelson affair shows the UK has become prone to moles and grifters

<p>The Bear features a chaotic family (PA/Disney)</p>
Voices

A friend has dropped me because of an argument between our kids

<p>Peter Mandelson has offered an apology to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein</p>
The Independent View

Mandelson’s fate now intertwined with that of the Labour government

<p>Some couples had spent tens of thousands on a single day</p>
Love & Sex

‘No need to waste thousands on one day’: Readers on no-fuss weddings

<p>Peter Mandelson was brought back in by Keir Starmer as ambassador to Washington, which seemed a gamble even at the time</p>
Voices

Epstein’s ‘dog muck’ is a smell that Labour can’t wash off

<p>Peter Mandelson’s instinctive reaction to each of his many downfalls has been: ‘How do I get out of this one?’</p>
Voices

Mandelson clearly thinks scandal is for little people

<p>The experience of being a doctor in the 1970s is very different to nowadays</p>
Voices

I woke up in hospital – now I know why resident doctors are on strike

<p>Peter Mandelson was brought back in by Keir Starmer as ambassador to Washington, which seemed a gamble even at the time</p>
Voices

Epstein’s ‘dog muck’ is a smell that Labour can’t wash off

<p>Peter Mandelson’s instinctive reaction to each of his many downfalls has been: ‘How do I get out of this one?’</p>
Voices

Mandelson clearly thinks scandal is for little people

<p>The experience of being a doctor in the 1970s is very different to nowadays</p>
Voices

I woke up in hospital – now I know why resident doctors are on strike

<p>Sarah Ferguson with her daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice</p>
Voices

Will Fergie’s disgrace now bring down Beatrice and Eugenie?

<p>Peter Mandelson has resigned from Labour to spare the party ‘further embarrassment’</p>
The Independent View

Mandelson must hand in his title and face up to Congress

<p>A picture from the ‘Epstein Files’ which appears to show Lord Mandelson in his underwear speaking to an unknown person wearing a bathrobe</p>
Voices

Of course Peter Mandelson deserves to be thrown out of the Lords

<p>Albert Besnard’s painting Peace and Justice hangs above the door to the Peace Palace in The Hague</p>
Voices

If the ICJ fails the Rohingya, international law will be weakened

<p>‘The women in these photographs are living with permanent consequences. They will never see the justice they deserve’</p>
Voices

It is time for Andrew to come clean about everything he knows

<p>Donald Trump blows a gold whistle to start the 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll</p>
Voices

Is Donald Trump wreaking havoc with the price of gold?

<p>After Scott, left, lost his identical twin Brian, he entered a unique grief ‘focused on loss of the future and my identity’ </p>
Voices

I have never known fear and pain like losing my identical twin

<p>My very first thought when I saw the images, with all of their stark intimacy of detail (the former prince’s bare feet, the casual polo shirt, the hand resting on the stomach of the unknown young woman), is that it feels like a violation</p>
Voices

All women will recognise the same thing in the latest Epstein photos

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