Artists including CMAT, Wet Leg, Loyle Carner, Wolf Alice and Self Esteem expressed concern about the rise of Reform UK on the Brit awards red carpet, saying artists should feel empowered to be political.
CMAT, nominated for international artist of the year at the ceremony in Manchester, said she was “not a big fan of anyone trying to argue that art is not a political place”.
“Everything is politics. But more than ever, art is politics because you don’t get to make art in a fascist state. Fascism is on the rise in every single country in the world.
“It’s showing its ugly head in Ireland, it’s showing its ugly head all over the UK and don’t even get me started on America.”
Speaking to the Guardian, she criticised the Berlin film festival’s jury president Wim Wenders, who this month controversially suggested cinema should “stay out of politics”, sparking a row that led to an open letter in response signed by 80 film professionals.
“It’s cowardice. And I think it is showing that these people are extremely separate from how normal people live their everyday lives. You know, they’ve become successful artists. Become successful musicians, film-makers, and so they have wiped their hands clean of having to do anything with the working classes or having to do anything with anyone who is oppressed in any nation because they have the luxury of doing that. And I don’t think that’s fair.”
Wolf Alice bassist Theo Ellis said: “[Musicians] have the power to expose people to information they might not have got somewhere else.”
He said he felt it was left to musicians to speak out on issues such as the genocide in Gaza because of a lack of coverage in traditional media.
“Some of the major news outlets over the course of 2025 particularly were downplaying things and artists were taking up the mantle of that, and that’s, one, really brave and two, really, really amazing. I feel like other artists have done it so well. It’s a shame. It says more about the legacy media than it does about us artists.”
The group, who won group of the year, described the rise of the far right in the UK as “shocking”. Ellis added that the Green party victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, with Reform in second, “just shows how extreme times are. You know, it’s a good thing and a bad thing, but the rise of Reform is a really bad thing that people should take very seriously.”
Wet Leg frontwoman Rhian Teasdale said: “I think that to be apolitical is political.”
Asked whether the band, who were nominated in the alternative/rock category, were concerned about the rise of Reform, the guitarist Joshua Omead Mobaraki said: “Yeah, I don’t want Reform UK to win any seats.”
He was a fan of Hannah Spencer, the Green party’s new MP. “I think she’s sick. She’s so cool. Congratulations to the people of Gorton and Denton for getting that done.
“I feel a lot of hope. I feel a lot of excitement. I think we need it.”
Self Esteem, nominated for artist of the year, said: “This country’s getting scarier and scarier. It’s really serious now.”
She said she sympathised with artists who felt they could not speak out, but “I just can’t not say what I think because it’s too frightening.”
“I’m genuinely terrified that we’re going into a dark place, darker than where we are already.”
What did she mean by a dark place? “The party that is doing the best in the polls at the moment.”
Describing Spencer as “a legend”, she said the Green party byelection victory was “exciting”.
“It’s not a two-party system any more. We have to galvanise and fight and spread information. I think a lot of people don’t actually understand what certain parties are gonna do.”
Her PR person tried to move her along. “I’m being told to shut up now,” she joked. “Vote Green.”
Hip-hop musician Loyle Carner, nominated in the hip-hop category, said: “It’s scary times we’re living in. But it’s such low-hanging fruit. I feel, in my circle, or the echo chamber I exist in, to say that I hate Nigel Farage … it’s not hard to say that.
“But for me what feels more powerful instead of being negative all the time, which is so easy because there’s a lot of negativity around me, is to try and find ways to express some sort of hope and generosity to the people like me who maybe feel marginalised or oppressed or left behind. Because there’s enough shit on the news that’s making me feel sad.”
During the awards itself, Max Bassin of US band Geese, who won the international group award, said “free Palestine, fuck Ice” as part of a brief acceptance speech. Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon, winner of the critics’ choice award, held a keffiyeh scarf aloft during an appearance by Sharon Osbourne, who has been critical of pro-Palestine activists such as Kneecap.
And host Jack Whitehall nodded to a recent spat inside the Labour party, saying to Manchester mayor Andy Burnham that the Brits was evidently “the only party he’s allowed into these days”.
