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Yesterday, Keir Starmer became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in a sweeping, historic election that ended 14 years of Conservative party rule. The UK’s various third parties made big gains, while Labour won more than 410 Parliamentary seats — a total apocalypse for the extremely unpopular Tories. But one Labour politician who didn’t win his election was Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, Labour’s candidate for the Mid Sussex parliamentary seat.
As Pitchfork reports, the centrist Liberal Democrats’ Alison Elizabeth Bennett won the Mid Sussex seat. The district is a solidly Conservative area that Rowntree had no real hope of winning. Bennett took the seat with 39% of the vote. Rowntree got 17%, coming in third behind the Lib-Dems and the Tories. Rowntree previously lost a few political races, but he was elected to Norwich County Council in 2017, leaving office in 2021. He was selected as a Labour candidate in March, and he played Blur’s recent Coachella gigs during the campaign.
During the election, the Tories used an unauthorized, slowed-down remix of MGMT’s “Little Dark Age” in a campaign video, and the band was pissed about it. In a statement to NME, MGMT said, “How many times do we have to remind you jokers that this song is NOT fair game for your utter garbage? Let’s all laugh at this dingus. Clock’s ticking, mate. Happy Independence Day.”
In a recent interview, Starmer talked about loving the Smiths in his youth and being a fan of current artists like Stormzy.