Inside the Big Issue: Carol Vorderman is still the voice of the opposition

Every two or so months, Carol Vorderman got together with a group of friends.

The “Gays and Girls” lunches started late, so everyone could get their work done. Then a group including her, Alan Carr, Gok Wan, Paul O’Grady and more met, ate and then went “on to whatever time, going around doing ridiculous things”.

The imagination races. Exactly what, I want to know, did Carol Vorderman get up to on her big, boozy nights out with the late, great Paul O’Grady? “Some of the things I can’t tell you,” Vorderman says. “Oh, but it was hilarious. When O’Grady was on one you’d absolutely cry laughing. I absolutely adored him and he wouldn’t hold back.”

Nowadays, lunches are a more sedate affair for Vorderman, 63. Come the end of the night, she’ll be nursing cups of tea. “I think I’m allergic to alcohol now,” she says. “It’s post-menopause – something you will never experience. Literally, I can’t remember the last time I had a drink.”

Like her lunches, Vorderman’s interview with Big Issue runs long – and is good value. We sit out on the balcony of her opulent Central London members’ club – it’s cheaper than a hotel, and she feels far safer. The Countdown host-turned Tory folk devil is dressed in a new oversized black blazer she proudly tells me she’s treated herself to. Minutes before we meet, Vorderman shared a Big Issue article on social media about women in the north dying earlier and being more likely to be in poverty. “And there, in one headline, is the truth of Tory so-called Levelling Up for you,” she posted on X. “Lying, robbing bunch of charlatans.” It’s the kind of anti-Tory salvo her 985,000 followers have grown accustomed to.

Read the full interview with Carol Vorderman in this week’s Big Issue!

What else is in this week’s Big Issue? Our first ever community roadshow in Newcastle

The first mayor of the North East has a big vision to revitalise Newcastle

“I’m fed-up of seeing us stuck behind Manchester or Leeds, let alone London,” said Kim McGuinness during her bid to become the first mayor of the North East. The pitch worked. Since her election in May, the 39-year-old has set her sights on eliminating child poverty, bringing public transport under state control, and leading the region into a powerful future. But if Newcastle is to soar, she’ll have to be bold.

It takes an army to drive the country’s biggest food bank

Hannah first came to Newcastle Foodbank seven years ago after she lost her job and faced homelessness. She had no choice, but it took courage. “I was shitting myself, I’m not going to lie,” says Hannah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “It was scary. But after the first time, it was all right. It was good.” Newcastle Foodbank, featured in the Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake and believed to be the biggest food bank in the UK, offers more than just food – it is a vital source of support after 14 years of austerity decimated public services.

From Gateshead to Paris on a BMX

With 10 seconds left on the clock in his final run at the men’s BMX freestyle Olympic final, Kieran Reilly pulled it all out of the bag. In BMX jargon: he performed a 360 double whip into a fl air whip, pushed into a 720 double tail whip, and fi nished with a perfect double whip as the buzzer sounded. In layman’s terms: he smashed it. “At the end of the second run, I just threw my bike away,” the Olympian tells the Big Issue.

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