Starmer’s deputy warns Mandelson scandal will impact crucial by-election

Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy leader has warned the upcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton is a “dry run” for a general election as the prime minister – wounded by the Peter Mandelson scandal – faces a battle to cling on to the historically safe Labour seat.

Lucy Powell told The Independent that the vote, on 26 February, represents “a line in the sand” in Labour’s fight to stop the advance of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

But she admitted she expects the Mandelson issue to come up on the doorstep, and she could not say that Labour was confident of retaining the seat or if the prime minister will show his face there.

“I imagine [Mandelson] will come up in some parts of the constituency,” Ms Powell said: “more than others for those who more closely follow the news.”

Ministers, senior Labour figures and backbench MPs believe the by-election is “the crunch point” for the beleaguered prime minister, with one claiming: “It’s a referendum on Starmer, pure and simple.”

The prime minister has faced the toughest week of his premiership so far, with his integrity and judgement called into question over his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

To add to Sir Keir’s problems, it has been claimed that he and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney were warned against appointing Mandelson to the role of ambassador to the US by both former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and Labour peer Maurice Glasman.

Ms Rayner, who was in Gorton and Denton campaigning on Saturday, is now emerging as a potential replacement for Sir Keir and her intervention on Wednesday, siding with the Tories, was crucial in forcing the PM to release all vetting documents linked to Mandelson’s appointment.

Shocking revelations on Mandelson allegedly passing confidential market-sensitive government material to Epstein when he was business secretary in 2009 have added further questions over the appointment.

Ms Powell admitted the scandal will become one of the factors in the by-election, and gave a lukewarm defence of the prime minister’s actions in appointing him as US ambassador.

“All I’d say is that prime ministers have to make judgement calls all day long and all the time, and sometimes they get them wrong,” she said. “I think the prime minister’s put his hands up about that.”

Labour is under no illusions about the scale of the task ahead in Gorton and Denton. Ministers have been ordered up to the Greater Manchester constituency to campaign in a seat the party won with more than 50 per cent of the vote in 2024.

Their campaign has already been hit by a row over Sir Keir blocking Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing to be the Labour candidate, with many believing he was the only one who could stop Reform.

Ms Powell, who voted to allow Mr Burnham to run on Labour’s National Executive Committee, said she and the Manchester mayor “want to draw a line” under that episode but insisted he was “a great asset” in the by-election campaign.

She highlighted how a succession of cabinet ministers are being sent up to the by-election to knock on doors including chancellor Rachel Reeves, education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and transport secretary Heidi Alexander, as Labour throws everything at stopping Reform. But she was unable to say whether the beleaguered prime minister would be joining them.

Ms Powell said: “I’m not sure yet, but look, everyone’s going to be coming and playing their part. But I speak to him regularly about it.”

Mr Farage, who has visited the constituency several times to campaign with Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin, told The Independent: “I really do believe this is turning into a referendum on Keir Starmer.”

One Labour MP said: “Farage could not have written this. It allows him to paint politicians as all ‘at it’, part of some kind of elite, helping each other out instead of voters. It is an absolute disaster for a seat where everyone is watching us and the pressure is on to prove that Reform can be stopped.”

A minister added: “If we do [come third], the PM is in trouble.”

Others repeated that he needs to go now, with left-wing MP Nadia Whittome describing the prime minister’s position as “untenable”.

Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: “The public and MPs aren’t willing to wait for a by-election or the locals – both were already going to be serious tests. The Mandelson scandal eclipses all of it.”

Neil Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, added: “We can’t just keep going on like this – lurching from one crisis to the next.”

Recent polling suggests Reform is leading the way, but only by a few points on average. The Greens published canvassing data suggesting Reform was leading, with them in second and Labour a distant third.

Two of the current main MRP polls put Reform ahead of Labour: Electoral Calculus, at 32 per cent to Labour’s 22.6, and Britain Predicts, at 32 per cent to Labour’s much higher 26.

Meanwhile, Polling Report predicts that Labour will hold the seat with 35.26 per cent of the vote, while Reform gets 27.65.

But Ms Powell, who represents the nearby Manchester Central seat and is taking a lead in the campaign with candidate Angeliki Stogia, took a defiant tone.

“This is not about my fortunes or other people’s fortunes. I’ve had enough of their [Reform’s] division, their othering, their blaming of the problems of society on immigrants.”

Highlighting how Mr Goodwin has been endorsed by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, she added: “There has to be a line in the sand here, and this by-election is that line, and I’m holding it up firmly, as we all are as a team.”

Asked if this campaign was “a dry run” for Labour’s fight with Reform on a national level, she said: “In some ways this is. It’s about showing that we are absolutely up for that fight, we’re prepared to take on that fight.

“There are things that we will need to try out here and to learn from here. It’s important because we just can’t let Reform come into an area like this and have a free run.”

I have the same health condition as Trump. Here’s what to know

When photos of President Donald Trump’s swollen hands and ankles went viral last summer, I couldn’t help but see my own.

The president was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency: a common vascular condition that mainly affects older adults. Tens of millions of Americans – or around one in four people – live with the affliction, the majority of whom are over the age of 50.

Venous insufficiency means that a person’s veins are weak, impacting blood flow in the legs that can lead to high blood pressure, swelling and even ulcers. The president is affected by mild swelling in his lower legs due to the condition, according to his physician Dr. Sean Barbabella.

But at 32 years old, I’m one of the five percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 65 plagued by the condition – and its one that’s followed me since I was a teenager.

Mostly, it just causes me embarrassment with red, purple and blue veins crawling up my feet, ankles and legs. When I was growing up, my dermatologist at first thought the small patches of red lines on the insides of my ankles were spider bites. Unfortunately, they weren’t – and they never went away.

Over time, my veins have only gotten larger and more noticeable, first affecting the insides of my legs and then working their way to the outside. The veins on my feet and outer ankles mimic purple bruising.

The condition has gotten worse over the course of the last decade, making it harder to hide in photos and on first dates.

I even considered getting tattoos – and some of those with spider and varicose veins have embraced the ink. But doing that can damage veins, leading to bleeding or infections, and don’t stop the underlying issues related to venous insufficiency, according to the Center for Vein Restoration. Also, my mom would kill me.

So, I have become an expert in camouflage on social media, using filters and blurring tools to cover up the worst of the visible veins.

Still, the reality is I have a genetic condition that deserves attention, and the best way to deal with venous insufficiency is to know as much about it as possible, experts say.

The condition occurs when the valves in your leg veins don’t function properly, causing the blood to pool in the limbs and slowing blood flow from the legs to the heart.

The result can often be pain, itchiness and swelling that leads to dry, fragile or flaky skin. In the most extreme cases, people may develop painful sores on their legs as their skin quality degrades.

People with venous insufficiency can also develop varicose or spider veins due to the damaged vein valves. Although not all people with venous insufficiency have them.

While cases of venous insufficiency are fairly rare in younger adults, Dr. Rob Attaran, an interventional cardiologist with the Heart and Vascular Center at Yale New Haven Health, told The Independent that he treated patients as young as 19 – and that women are at higher risk.

“If you’re a woman and you have one part with varicose veins, there’s probably an almost 50-50 chance you will have them, too,” he said. “In men, it’s a little bit lower – but it’s still pretty high.”

There are other aspects that can leave you at a higher risk, as well. Those factors include how often you move around, your genetic history, a history of obesity, being pregnant, smoking, developing deep vein thrombosis – a blood clot in a vein located deep in the body – and sleeping in a chair.

It’s unknown which risk factors might have led to the 79-year-old president’s chronic venous insufficiency, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in July that Trump underwent an evaluation from the White House medical unit in an “abundance of caution” after noticing the swelling.

“The president underwent a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies,” she said, reading a memo from Barbabella. “Bilateral lower extremity venus doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venus insufficiency, a benign and common condition.”

“All results were within normal limits,” Leavitt added.

Venous insufficiency cannot be cured or reversed, but it can be treated with lifestyle changes and medical procedures. The top choice is swearing compression socks or hose, which ease swelling, push blood back toward the heart and relieve any pain the patient may be experiencing.

But, that’s not the only option, Dr. Richard Meena, a vascular surgeon at Brown Surgical Associates, told The Independent.

“A lot of the advances have been kind of in catheter-based or minimally invasive procedures,” he said. “There’s heat and laser, as well as injectable solutions like foams and glues, with the idea that if you cause some sort of irritation within the vein itself that’s a little leaky, you might be able to shut it down so that more blood can go back to the heart and less will accumulate in the leg.”

There are also cosmetic solutions, to help reduce the sometimes intense appearance of the veins. Doctors can inject detergent-based medication called sclerosants into spider veins, or remove the veins with small needle pokes in an outpatient procedure known as microphlebectomy.

“All of these procedures are minimally invasive, where you walk in and walk out of the clinic with little to no downtime and you can enjoy your legs again,” Dr. Charles Leithead, a vascular surgeon with Ochsner Health, said.

And sometimes treating the symptoms may help the cosmetic side of venous insufficiency improve, Meena also noted.

I’ve often thought about trying those cosmetic treatments, of course. But they are costly, and often not covered by health insurance providers. New York City’s Metro Vein Centers prices some foam, catheter and laser treatments at more than $2,000 each time.

People may have to pay for them more than once. Even though the procedures may help veins to close, new veins can crop up later.

Until I make that decision, the experts suggest I remain active, wear compression socks and stay as healthy as I can.

Running is great for the condition, as well as getting up and moving as much as possible during the work day, Meena said. Getting up and taking a short walk every 30 minutes over the course of an eight-hour work day is enough to make a difference, according to Upstate University Hospital.

Ultimately, my biggest takeaway has been the importance of staying vigilant about regular check-up appointments with a primary care physician or vascular specialist.

Ignoring vein issues can lead to complications, and even clots or blockages in arteries in the lungs. Getting checked out is crucial to prevent venous insufficiency from getting worse, and each case is different.

“Everyone has their own medical journey, including with their veins,” said Meena.

Taylor Swift’s obsession with self-mythologising makes for boring art

When Taylor Swift unveiled the music video for her latest single “Opalite” on Friday, it was pretty much guaranteed there’d be a few easter eggs in store. Because when it comes to the world’s biggest pop star, nothing – from the colour of her nail polish to the jewellery she wears on the red carpet – is a coincidence.

With “Opalite” starring Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lewis Capaldi, Cillian Murphy and Graham Norton, it quickly became apparent that Swift had recruited her fellow guests and their host from an October 2025 episode of The Graham Norton Show, in which she appeared to promote her latest album The Life of a Showgirl. Beyond that, the myriad articles, TikToks and Reddit threads shared in the past few days have pointed out clues hiding in the props, the posters in the background, the messages on the friendship bracelets…

Swift explained that she’d been inspired after Irish actor Gleeson quipped that he’d like to appear in one of her next projects. “He was joking,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an idea. And so a week later he received an email script I’d written for the ‘Opalite’ video, where he was playing the starring role. I had this thought that it would be wild if all of our fellow guests on The Graham Norton Show that night, including Graham himself, could be a part of it too.”

Once, this kind of Swiftian manoeuvre would have delighted. Swift has been hiding clues in her work since she was 15: “My fans and I have… descended into colour coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and easter eggs,” she told The Washington Post. “It’s really about turning new music into an event for my fans and trying to entertain them in playful, mischievous, clever ways.” For years, Swifties have eaten this up, speculating, decoding and theorising with the sort of wild-eyed fervour usually reserved for tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracists – as her clues became more and more obscure. There is so much hidden in the music video for 2017 single “Look What You Made Me Do” that Swift has suggested fans still haven’t discovered every easter egg. It’s not just her music, either. Fans have been taught to scour every interview, every outfit choice, the live shows… just in case.

But these scavenger hunts have grown tedious. Swift’s penchant for self-referentiality and meta-narratives makes her music seem impenetrable to casual listeners, and the artist herself overly insular. With the exception of a loose narrative about the lengths people will go to in their search for “the one”, the video for “Opalite” has very little to say. Instead, it feels like another vehicle for Swiftian world-building – less an expression of artistic intent and more like a self-mythologising sales technique.

Swift’s inability to look beyond herself is affecting the music, too. One of the biggest roadblocks of 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department was how reliant it was on the lore of its own creator, while last year’s The Life of a Showgirl is her most solipsistic record yet. The problem is not that Swift draws on her own life to create her art. The issue is that she now appears unable to see that life in the context of anything other than herself. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this is that she’s proven on numerous occasions that she is more than capable of constructing narratives of great depth: from the masterful “Cardigan”, “August” and “Betty” trilogy from 2020’s Folklore, in which she fleshed out a tale of infidelity, regret and longing, to “Clara Bow” and “The Last Great American Dynasty”.

Along the way, though, this inquisitive and observational eye has turned exclusively inward. Take Showgirl’s lead single “The Fate of Ophelia”. The Swift of Folklore would have done her due diligence in accurately representing the nuances and complexities of Shakespeare’s doomed heroine. The Swift of Showgirl, however, fails to look beyond her personal and professional identity – and the marketing power attached – in order to do that character justice. The tragic story of Ophelia becomes a mere costume Swift dons to further mythologise (and commodify) her romance with American football star Travis Kelce.

Such navel-gazing affected the entirety of Showgirl, a record that has nevertheless become one of the biggest records of Swift’s career. While Swift was never a trend-chaser, frequently eschewing Top 40 fads in favour of thoughtful songwriting and smart production, her insularity is now isolating her. She no longer feels part of a wider cultural conversation involving other musicians, literature, history, film or visual art. What does casting a host of famous faces you appeared with on a chat show say about anything?

Swift is often an exceptional songwriter, and, as the Eras Tour demonstrated, a brilliant pop star. It’s why such hollow creativity is so exasperating. As one friend of mine recently suggested, imagine if Swift had returned to the calibre of storytelling of Folklore and written a concept album about Ophelia, tapping into her ability to capture emotional specificities with narrative detail. Likewise, she could easily adopt the archival approach Beyoncé took on Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, utilising her wit and intellect to explore her pop lineage.

Instead, Swift’s sole point of reference has become herself. Alone at the pinnacle of pop supremacy and consumed by her evidence board of easter eggs, she has lost her once-tenacious grip on the pen she used to expertly wield. The result is not only a lack of quality music, but, worst of all, a glut of boring art. Someone of Swift’s talents can do better. As it stands, she seems to have forgotten that there’s more to being a showgirl than simply existing in the spotlight.

New research identifies five kinds of sleeper – which one are you?

No one crows louder than the proverbial “early bird”, boasting about their pre-work run to anyone who’ll listen. Night owls, on the other hand, often pride themselves on their bursts of productivity as they burn the midnight oil.

But a new study published in Nature Communications suggests that, rather than just these two camps, there are actually five “subtypes” of sleeper, determined by the parts of the day when people feel most alert or ready to sleep.

And, while previous studies have linked night owl tendencies to worse heart health and mental health, with early mornings viewed as the way to go for wellbeing, the latest findings from the team at McGill University in Canada question that – and suggest that the relationship between your sleep routine and your health might be more complex than you think. So which camp are you in – and what could it mean for your health?

Researchers identified the five subtypes of sleeper using brain imaging, questionnaires and medical records from more than 27,000 adults.

The first group of early birds – subtype three – had the fewest health problems overall, while the second group – subtype four – was closely tied to depression. This is contrary to previous research pointing to the fact that night owls have the worst health markers.

Among the night owls, subtype one performed better than all other groups in cognitive tests but had more emotional-regulation challenges. Subtype two showed risk-taking tendencies and a higher likelihood of heart problems, while subtype five was found to be more likely to have depression, smoke and face higher risks of heart disease.

“These subtypes are not defined only by bedtime or wake-up time,” says the study’s senior author Danilo Bzdok, associate professor in McGill University’s department of biomedical engineering. “They reflect a complex interaction of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.”

The study’s lead author, Le Zhou, a PhD student at McGill University, uses the term “biological diversity” to describe the findings. In other words, everyone is different, each chronotype subtype has its relative risks and perks, and there is no perfect sleep routine to suit all-comers.

Zhou hopes the study’s findings can move sleep profiles and advice away from a “one-size-fits-all approach”.

“In today’s digital and post-pandemic era, sleep patterns are more diverse than ever,” he says. “Understanding this biological diversity could eventually help inform more personalised approaches to sleep, work schedules and mental health support.”

The McGill University team’s next mission is using genetic data to determine whether someone’s chronotype subtype has biological roots from birth. If the results fall in the affirmative, you might be able to blame your bleary-eyed presence in any future 9am meetings on your parents.

Read more: New research reveals the exercise six times more effective than walking

The links between your sleep, schedule and health are still under investigation. However, if your sleep routine is rooted in genetics as suggested, finding a way to work with your body’s natural tendencies – rather than fighting them – is likely to deliver better health outcomes.

One of the biggest barriers to doing this is routine. In a world of biological diversity, humans are largely tarred with the same brush, expected to produce peak productivity between the hours of 9am and 5pm. This structure tends to reward early risers.

If you are naturally a night owl, overhauling your sleep schedule to suit this timetable is unlikely to feel fantastic. But there are things you can do to nudge your routine in this direction.

“Having a consistent bedtime and wake time is one of the absolute best things you can do, not only for your sleep but also your health,” says Emily Capodilupo, senior vice president of research, algorithms and data at wearable company WHOOP. “It reduces inflammation, reduces your risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes, and improves metabolic health.”

Establishing consistent cues ahead of your bedtime, such as dimming the lights in your home, changing into your pyjamas or reading in the hours before, aids this by sending clear signals to your body that it’s time to wind down.

Then, if you want to feel alert in the morning, going outside into daylight shortly after waking reinforces a rhythm in which your body is awake in the day and asleep at night.

“That can be as simple as making sure you open the blinds in the morning and let the sun hit your face,” Capodilupo continues. “It’s even better if you can actually get outside. Sunlight improves our mood, and tells your circadian rhythm that it’s time to wake up.”

Read more: Expert warns why this daily habit is shortening your life – even if you exercise

You need to sleep enough each night to support your health – approximately eight hours of sleep per 24 hours, according to Harvard Medical School’s division of sleep medicine. But this number can vary from six to nine hours depending on the individual, the institution reports.

Fortunately, there is a free and easy test to check if you’re getting enough sleep, according to human performance scientist and Absolute Rest founder Dr Andy Galpin.

“If I wake up feeling fully refreshed, I’m sharp, my energy is awesome, I train, I recover, I feel great, and then I’m sleepy at night – I don’t really care what any fitness tracker says,” he tells me.

“If your daytime function is really good then you probably don’t need to mess around too much with your sleep.”

It’s natural to start feeling a bit drowsy in the afternoon, he adds. Building “sleep pressure” throughout the day is necessary to help us sleep soundly at night.

However, if you find yourself struggling for energy throughout the morning, it could be time to consult his list of nine tips for a better sleep.

Read more: The common foods that can reduce inflammation and improve heart health, according to experts

Experts warn against rise in dangerous weight-loss ‘jab hacks’

Experts have warned those on weight-loss injections against trying “jab hacks” like taking tiny doses or buying the medication from illegitimate sources.

Almost half of the 1.6 million people on weight-loss medication in the UK say they have either dabbled with dangerous techniques such as “microdosing” (32 per cent) or turned to unlicensed drugs and sellers (28 per cent) as the price of the medication rises, according to a survey by LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor.

One woman named Amy, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, explained she takes small doses of Wegovy to make the pen last longer and save money, meaning she uses each needle twice.

The 55-year-old, from West Sussex, told The Independent: “I pay £150 for a 1 milligram pen, which if you’re on the full dose lasts four weeks, and if you halve it, it lasts eight weeks. I have been eking it out so that a full pen can last me eight to 10, maybe even 12 weeks.”

She has been buying Wegovy from her beauty therapist since March 2025. But weight-loss medication can’t be bought over the counter and must be prescribed by a qualified healthcare professional, such as a GP or pharmacist, following a consultation.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has warned against sourcing weight-loss medicines from unregulated suppliers, with the maker of Wegovy calling this a “direct danger to health”.

Dr Kieran Seyan, chief medical officer at LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor, told The Independent: “I am increasingly worried by reports that some individuals may be accessing prescription-only weight-loss medication through unregulated sources like beauty therapists or salons.

“Medication from a source that is not appropriately regulated increases the risk of incorrect dosing, expired or improperly stored medication, and in some cases, counterfeit products.”

Amy said she trusts her beauty therapist and believes she would struggle to access weight-loss drugs on the NHS.

“From the age of 10 I was taken by my mother to Weight Watchers, and eventually, 15 years ago, I had gastric bypass surgery privately that didn’t work,” she said.

“I started Wegovy in March through my beauty therapist who does aesthetics and Botox. She goes to a doctor to get it prescribed, and then I collect it from her.”

Amy explained she did have a phone consultation and had to have a BMI over 30 to access the weight-loss drug, which she was, but she admitted the process should be “stricter”.

Weight-loss injections, such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, also known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by mimicking the natural hormone which regulates blood sugar, appetite and digestion.

They are a prescribed drug and to access them on the NHS a patient needs to have a BMI of 40 or more, but private providers offer them to those with a BMI over 30.

Amy started on a low dose of 0.5mg and gradually increased to 1mg. After losing two-and-a-half stone and reaching a BMI of 25, she was told to reduce her dosage to half the amount with the intent to stop.

“I haven’t actually stopped, I kept going and I’m almost scared to come off it. I feel that I probably might be on it for good,” she added. “I’ve got to have a pen in the fridge all the time and I just think it’s something that I’ll be on for the foreseeable future.”

The hack, known as “microdosing”, involves taking smaller doses than the weight-loss jab is designed for.

Dr Seyan warned that using smaller doses to make the medication last “isn’t an exact science” and hasn’t been tested. He explained there is a risk of administering “unequal doses”, which can make the jab less effective.

The dose is decided by a pharmacist or doctor depending on the individual, and “chopping and changing” the dose doesn’t give the body a chance to adapt and can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, tummy pain and constipation, he explained.

He also warned that the pen itself is only supposed to last four weeks, so using it past this point could mean the medication itself has expired, making it less effective.

Because Amy uses a Wegovy injection that comes with only four needles, and sometimes uses the needle twice to reach eight or more doses, she is at risk of infection.

Leyla Hanbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, warned: “Patients should always use a clean and sterile needle for each injection.

“There is a significant risk for bacterial contamination as a used needle is no longer sterile and can infect the body with bacteria.

“There is also a risk of an inaccurate dose being administered if residue remained in the old needle, which will prevent the full dose of medication from being delivered. In addition, old needles can break and be damaged and can cause damage to the skin.”

An MHRA spokesperson said: “Wegovy (semaglutide) is a prescription-only medication, meaning it should only be obtained from a registered pharmacy against a prescription issued by a healthcare professional.

“Sourcing weight-loss medicines from unregulated suppliers significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not approved for use. Products bought in this way will not meet the MHRA’s strict  safety and quality standards and could expose patients to incorrect dosages or dangerous ingredients.”

Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy, also warns against obtaining the medication from unregulated suppliers, adding it does not condone practices such as “microdosing” and medication should be taken at the recommended doses.

A spokesperson said: “At Novo Nordisk, patient safety is our top priority. Obtaining GLP-1 medicines without a prescription through non-legitimate routes poses a direct danger to health. The contents of the medicines obtained from sources other than a registered healthcare professional can be entirely different from the genuine medicine and should not be used.

“We urge patients to only obtain appropriate medicine on prescription through legitimate sources and after consultation with a healthcare professional. If a patient suspects they have administered a counterfeit product, they should seek medical advice straight away.”

Nordic flavours: Discover culture and cuisine on an enriching cruise

Norway’s food is more than just something to eat; it tells the story of a coastline shaped by freezing seas and centuries of being resourceful. It’s rooted in preservation, seasonality and local pride, and is a cuisine best understood not by crossing the country, but by tracing its edges, sailing from port to port.

With more than 130 years of experience along Norway’s rugged coast, Nordic cruise operator Hurtigruten knows these waters better than anyone, as well as the culture, community and cuisine you’ll find en route. On board, food is not an added extra, but an integral part of the journey itself, and as the ship sails north, so do the menus, reflecting the regions, communities and producers met along the way.

On a Hurtigruten voyage, ingredients are sourced directly from the coastline, picked up as ships travel between ports, with around 70 local farms, fisheries, bakeries, and producers in its network, and a focus on small-scale, homegrown suppliers.

Menus are chock-full of melt-in-your-mouth cod from Vesterålen, award-winning goat’s cheese from family-run Aalan Farm in Lofoten, and craft beer brewed in Bergen. Dining rooms are designed with floor-to-ceiling windows, so as fjords glide past outside, you’re eating dishes made from the very waters and landscapes you’re sailing through.

Each Hurtigruten ship has a main restaurant, a bistro-style eatery and a fine dining option, all guided by the line’s food philosophy, Norway’s Coastal Kitchen, with super seasonal menus grounded in local traditions.

On The Coastal Express, Torget is the heart of onboard dining, with mornings beginning with freshly baked bread, saxlmon and porridge, and evenings with three-course dinners with just-caught fish, Norwegian meats and plant-based dishes, best finished with traditional desserts and local berries.

For something more casual, Brygga reflects the bustle of Norway’s working wharves, serving hearty favourites such as soups, salads and the much-loved Norwegian shrimp sandwich, piled high with prawns, eggs, dill mayonnaise and lemon.

The ship’s à la carte restaurant, Kysten, offers a more refined take on Norwegian cuisine, with fresh seafood, wild herbs and carefully sourced meats, paired with thoughtfully selected wines, including Hurtigruten’s own sparkling wine, Havets Bobler.

Aged deep beneath the Norwegian Sea rather than in a cellar, Havets Bobler matures more than 30 metres below the surface, gently rocked by ocean currents in cold, dark waters. The result is a wine with fine bubbles, a subtle mineral finish, and a process rooted in the Norwegian sea.

On premium Signature Voyages such as the North Cape Line and The Svalbard Line, dining becomes an even deeper exploration of Norway’s culinary scene. These all-inclusive journeys feature three unique restaurants, each reflecting Norway’s past, present and future.

In the main restaurant, Flora, menus are inspired by Norway’s edible landscape, packed with herbs, berries, mushrooms and vegetables, and shaped by the seasons and the ports visited each day. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet-style, while evenings bring a changing à la carte menu, meaning no two dinners are ever the same.

Brasserie Árran celebrates tradition with hearty Norwegian classics such as Sámi reindeer stew, smoked reindeer with lingonberry, and pickled herring on rye. At the top end, fine-dining restaurant Røst draws inspiration from the ancient fish banks of the Lofoten Islands with tasting menus that might feature stockfish, salmon or reindeer, alongside more unexpected ingredients such as seaweed, kelp, sea urchin and Arctic pearls.

Across all venues, traditional preservation methods are at the forefront, with drying, fermenting and salting taking centre stage, honoured by chefs, sommeliers and mixologists who reinterpret age-old techniques especially for Hurtigruten voyages.

For the ultimate foodie adventure, Hurtigruten’s Culinary Voyage sails from Bergen to Tromsø over seven delicious days, mixing life on board with experiences on land, plus a chance to meet the people bringing Norway’s food scene to life. One day you might be tucking into a seaweed-themed 20-course dinner at a gourmet farm, the next enjoying tastings at the world’s northernmost distillery and brewery.

Hurtigruten’s connection to the coast goes beyond sourcing, with a sustainable approach that minimises waste. Leftover food from ships sailing The Coastal Express is composted in Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands, using a specially designed reactor. Within 24 hours, it becomes fertiliser for the nearby Myklevik farm, where herbs and vegetables are grown, some of which even return to the ships.

This quiet farm-to-fleet-to-farm cycle reflects Hurtigruten’s commitment to reducing food waste through reducing, reusing and recycling, helping care for both the coastline and the communities it serves.

Food is only part of the adventure on a Hurtigruten voyage, and alongside dining, the onboard Expedition Team brings Norwegian culture to life through lectures, talks, and foodie experiences that explore the country’s past, traditions, and way of life.

On land, excursions might include sampling local beers at Macks Ølbryggeri in Tromsø, heading out with fishermen in Kirkenes to haul up king crab from icy waters, or visiting a family-run dairy farm in Lofoten. In Lofoten, the Stockfish Museum explains how cod has been dried in the Arctic air for centuries, and in Bergen, the Hanseatic Museum shows how closely food and trade were woven into life along the historic wharf.

But head even further north, and you can meet indigenous Sámi families to learn about their long-standing tradition of reindeer herding, gaining a deeper insight into the incredible Sámi way of life.

A voyage of discovery

With a Hurtigruten cruise you can experience Norway in its most authentic way, gliding slowly along the coast, and immersing yourself in each fascinating destination – travelling the way it’s always been done. For more travel information and inspiration and to plan your trip, visit Hurtigruten. Save up to 30 per cent on a Hurtigruten cruise for departures until March 2027, when you book by 28th February.

Protect inclusive spaces from gender-critical legal battles, Starmer told

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to protect inclusive spaces from gender-critical lawfare after a campaign group attempted to bring legal action to exclude trans women from Kenwood Ladies’ Pond in Hampstead Heath.

A coalition of more than 140 LGBT+ and feminist organisations has warned that “trans people in Britain are facing an existential threat, while businesses, employers and service providers are being dragged through the courts for defending their inclusive practices”.

In a letter coordinated by the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and sent to hundreds of MPs, seen by The Independent, parliamentarians have been urged to press the prime minister and the minister for women and equalities to take action to protect trans-inclusive spaces from the risk of expensive legal action after last year’s Supreme Court judgment.

It comes after charity Sex Matters took legal action against the City of London Corporation, which operates the men’s, women’s and mixed bathing ponds in north London.

The gender-critical organisation argued that the policy of allowing trans people to use the facilities for the gender with which they identify amounts to sex discrimination.

However, last month, a judge ruled that the case could not proceed, saying the “appropriate forum” for the claim is the county court, rather than the High Court.

The judge’s decision comes after the Supreme Court ruling last year, which said that a person’s legal sex under the Equality Act is the one they were biologically assigned at birth.

But Sex Matters has said it was disappointed with the verdict and that it is considering its legal options – meaning the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond could face further action. could face further action.

Last year, Girlguiding described its move to bar trans girls as “a decision we would have preferred not to make”, while the Women’s Institute said that ending decades of inclusion was done with the “utmost regret and sadness”.

The letter, signed by 146 organisations, says: “Fighting for inclusion is hard: 86 per cent of respondents to the City of London’s recent Hampstead Heath swimming ponds consultation want to remain trans-inclusive, and yet the Corporation continues to face the prospect of expensive litigation.

“They don’t want this. But law-fare against inclusive organisations will continue, whatever the courts decide, with public money and business budgets spent defending against it – unless you act.”

It adds: “Anything else risks forcing businesses, charities and public services to police everyone’s gender – with reports suggesting that the EHRC recommends this be done based on looks, putting all women at risk of misogynist abuse. This would be dangerous and unworkable.”

The letter urges MPs to ask Sir Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson to “work to ensure our equalities law and guidance protects the norm of trans-inclusion” and to “commit to ensuring that all UK legislation protects the human rights of trans and gender non-conforming people”.

Jessica Fortune, co-chair of Amnesty Feminists, who signed the letter, warned that “feminism that doesn’t include trans people isn’t feminism”.

“It’s just reinforcing the gender hierarchy we’ve always fought against”, she told The Independent. “Being silent is not neutral. When gender policing intensifies against trans people, all women are harmed.”

Ms Fortune warned that anti-trans “lawfare” is a “dangerous distraction from the real threats facing women’s safety”, saying: “We must direct our anger at the right target – the groups trying to divide us and the government failing to act.”

Meanwhile, Heather Paterson, from LGBT+ Consortium, another one of the letter’s signatories, said: “Trans inclusion is the norm across the country. Our members work every day to create safer, more inclusive spaces across the UK, and we have seen before where exclusion leads.

“We will not be silent while trans lives, inclusive organisations, and the values that bind our communities together are put at risk.”

The latest intervention comes amid further delays in introducing new guidance on transgender people’s use of single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court ruling.

A code of practice, updated in the wake of last April’s decision that the term “woman” in equality legislation referred to biological sex, was shared with the government more than four months ago at the start of September.

A leaked draft of the guidance was reported in November as suggesting transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces based on the way they look – which trans rights campaigners dubbed a “licence to discriminate based on looks, plain and simple”.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome told The Independent that “policing people’s gender is fundamentally harmful for all women, whether they are trans or not”.

Throwing her weight behind the letter, she added: “I sincerely hope that my fellow MPs will listen to them.

“We must pressure the government to uphold the rights of our trans constituents and prevent businesses and organisations from being bullied into excluding trans people via legal threats.”

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, said: “As the Supreme Court confirmed last year, equality law can only protect women from sex discrimination if sex is understood in law to mean sex, not paperwork or self-ID. Any organisation with policies that do not comply with this understanding is acting unlawfully and harming women.”

A government spokesperson said: “We expect all duty bearers to follow the Supreme Court ruling and seek legal advice where necessary.

“The EHRC has submitted a draft Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to Ministers, and we are working at pace to review it properly. This will provide further guidance to duty bearers on how to apply the Equality Act.”

People are saying boycott Amazon – this is why it’s almost impossible

Can you use the internet well? Not in the sense of being good at it – we know you can do that, because you’re reading this article, which is a good thing to being doing with your internet connection. But is there an ethical way to be online?

That question is whispered every time anyone logs on, but it got louder this week, amid the ongoing outrage at the behaviour of ICE in the US and the Trump government more generally. In the wake of that – and amid a range of other responses – many people have attempted to detach their internet use from those companies that help power ICE and its related organisations.

So, for instance, a viral post from a campaign calling itself QuitGPT has gained nearly 200,000 likes since it was posted five days ago. “We are launching an INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT of ChatGPT for financing Trump and giving tech to ICE,” it reads. The criticism relates primarily to Greg Brockman, a cofounder and president of ChatGPT creators OpenAI, who donated $25 million to the main pro-Trump SuperPAC.

It’s just one part of a broader movement. NYU professor and talking head Scott Galloway has for instance launched a movement called “Resist and Unsubscribe”, which points its ire at ten companies, including OpenAI. It also asks people to stop using Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Paramount+, Uber, and X. All of those companies are “subscription-driven consumer tech companies we have identified as having outsized influence over the national economy and our president”, Galloway writes on a devoted page set up for the campaign. (It also targets other companies – AT&T, Comcast, Charter Communications, Dell, FedEx, Home Depot, Marriott and UPS as “active enablers of ICE”, most of which focuses on contracts for services to the US government.)

The list is long: without it you’d have very little of the modern web left. Even Galloway recognised that: the same website says that “we’d boycott Instagram too if we could, but we need it to get this message to you”. Even those leading the charge on a boycott are admitting that it isn’t possible to commit to it fully.

The truth is even more complicated. It might be relatively easy to unsubscribe from Amazon Prime, for instance – but it’s very difficult to even know when you’re using Amazon Web Services, from which it makes most of its money. The same is true of similar offerings from Google and Microsoft.

The last few months have revealed the hidden systems that power our internet, as if the scenery has suddenly fallen and we can see the stagehands behind. For the most part, this has been in fittingly disastrous ways: the recent outages at Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services exposed how centralised the web is through demonstrating its fragility. Websites that had no ostensible connection to each other all went down at the same time – because, in fact, they were all depending on the same relatively small number of systems and providers.

Every time there is a flare-up of this kind of consumer activism, it is a reminder that all of these companies are not stable, static, permanent parts of our infrastructure, but rather contingent companies run by human beings who really do need us to keep subscribing to keep their businesses afloat. This might be one way of starting to use the web in an ethical way: to pull down the scenery, and expose the people and companies behind it.

Those people and companies have unprecedented and sometimes infinite-feeling power. But at least some part of that power is derived from seeming both inevitable and semi-transparent; just there, in the same way that a water tower might be. But they are making choices every day, empowered by the importance and money gathered from their customers; those customers, it seems, are becoming increasingly frustrated with those choices.