‘I could have killed them’: Lawson’s fury after narrowly missing hitting marshals
Liam Lawson issued a damning broadside after he narrowly missed hitting two marshals on track at the Mexico City Grand Prix, warning that he could have killed them and branding it dangerous and unacceptable.In the race which was won in dominant form by McLaren’s Lando Norris, the Racing Bulls driver had started in 15th place but took damage on the opening lap and made an immediate pit stop.When he emerged from the pit lane he was confronted with two marshals running across the track having been clearing debris from the opening corners directly in front of the New Zealander.“Mate.Oh my god, are you kidding me? Did you just see that?” he said to his engineer on team radio.
“I could have fucking killed them.”After the race he was outraged that the marshals had been placed in such danger apparently without being informed that he was out of time with the rest of the field after pitting early.“I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said.“Boxed, came out and then I got to turn one and there were just two dudes running across the track.I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was so dangerous.
Obviously there’s been a miscommunication somewhere but I’ve never experienced that before and I haven’t really seen that in the past,“It’s pretty unacceptable,We can’t understand how on a live track marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that,I have no idea why, I’m sure we’ll get some sort of explanation, but it really can’t happen again,”The FIA issued a statement afterwards stating it was investigating what had happened as instructions for marshals to enter the track had been revoked.
“Following a turn one incident, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner.On lap three, marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed turn one,” the statement read.“As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area.We are still investigating what occurred after that point.”Norris also brushed off booing he received from the crowd after his victory, apparently aimed at the British driver because Mexican fans perceived it had been unfair that he had been given back a place he lost to Piastri after a slow pit stop under team orders at Monza.
In a poll Mexicans had voted that he should return the three points.“They have the right to do it if they want to do it, that’s sport sometimes,” he said.“I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing when I get booed.I think it makes it more entertaining for me, so they can keep doing it if they want.”
Keir Starmer shares post-punk passion and revisits musical past
Keir Starmer has said he is a fan of the Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice and northern soul, in a deep dive of his musical tastes and personal life.On BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions, Starmer chose a selection of his favourite music including works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Elgar, and reflected on his own musical journey, which included learning to play violin alongside Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, at school.Starmer was a keen musician in his childhood, playing flute, piano, recorder and violin, and won a Guildhall School of Music and Drama scholarship. He said he still listened to music every day as a form of escape.He described the jangle pop band Orange Juice as “absolutely fantastic” and said he had discovered their music after moving to Leeds for university, where he studied law in the 1980s
Reform MP’s remarks about TV adverts were ‘racist’, says Wes Streeting
Wes Streeting has accused the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin of making racist remarks after she said seeing adverts full of black and Asian people “drives her mad”.The health secretary said Pochin was “only sorry she’s been caught and called out”, adding she had “said the quiet bit loud”, as he warned of a return to “1970s, 1980s-style racism”.Streeting’s comments went further than Labour’s official remarks from the party chair, Anna Turley, who on Saturday night condemned Pochin’s remarks and said Reform was “more interested in dividing our country than uniting it”, but stopped short of explicitly calling the comments racist.On Friday, Pochin, who is Reform UK’s MP for Runcorn and Helsby, complained that “every advert” seemed to feature “black and Asian people”, as she responded to a viewer on TalkTV who had complained about the demographics of advertising.Pochin, 56, said the viewer was “absolutely right”, adding: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more,” blaming the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”
‘We have to book bigger rooms’: Green membership surge causes novel problems
A surge in membership levels is causing the Green party some novel problems. “Our local association went from 400 to over 1,000,” one activist said. “We had meetings booked in rooms with a capacity of 50, and loads of people were being turned away. We’ve had to start booking bigger rooms.”The Greens have long been a party on the rise
Companies that donated to Labour awarded £138m in contracts, study finds
Companies that have recently donated to Labour were awarded contracts worth almost £138m during the party’s first year in government, according to research that raises fresh concerns about the relationship between political donations and public spending.A report by the thinktank Autonomy Institute has identified more than 100 companies that have given money to political parties and then won government contracts, under both Conservative and Labour administrations.The study follows a previous investigation by the Guardian that revealed how companies linked to Tory donors had been given billions in public funds since 2016.The new analysis shows the pattern has continued under Labour, with eight companies that donated more than £580,000 to the party receiving government contracts worth nearly £138m within two years of their donation (between July 2024 and June 2025).Looking beyond a two-year window, the thinktank found 25 Labour-linked companies had won contracts worth £796
Labour’s new deputy leader says party must pay more heed to its members
Labour’s new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said the government must listen to its members instead of being guided by a “narrow group of voices” as it battles to stave off electoral disaster in next May’s local elections.Powell defeated the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in the deputy leadership contest, which concluded on Saturday. She said she had been given “a clear mandate that members want their voice to be heard at the top of the party”.The Manchester Central MP won 54% of the vote, polling 87,407 votes, while Phillipson received 73,536. Turnout was just 16
Labour’s new deputy leader Lucy Powell says she wants Starmer to succeed but party must change – as it happened
Lucy Powell was sacked from Keir Starmer’s cabinet in September and has indicated she will refuse a return to a government role so she can speak more openly about the direction of the party in office.She has insisted she wants to “help Keir and our government to succeed” but the party “must change how we are doing things to turn things around”.In a final message to supporters earlier this week she said Labour had to be “more in touch with our movement, and the communities and workplaces we represent, more principled and strategic, less tactical, and strongly guided by our values”.This live blog will be closing shortly. Thank you for reading the updates
Timely assurance from Lear’s Kent | Letters
The Guide #214: Sleep-inducing songs and tranquilising TV – the culture that sends us to sleep (in a good way)
Seth Meyers on Trump’s White House ballroom: ‘This couldn’t be any more of a bait and switch’
Seth Meyers on Trump’s White House demolition: ‘This is insane’
Toe-curling fashion: how did toe shoes become so popular?
Stephen Colbert on Trump’s White House East Wing demolition: ‘So deeply unsettling’