‘Pathetic’ Miliband savaged for Brand video stunt
ED Miliband was condemned as ‘desperate and pathetic’ for agreeing to be interviewed by controversial comedian and self- styled revolutionary Russell Brand.
The Labour leader even travelled to Brand’s £2million home in trendy Hoxton, East London, on Monday night to be questioned in his kitchen for a YouTube video.
Brand, a former drug addict, has previously urged his millions of Twitter followers not to ‘ bother’ voting and admitted he has never voted himself. ‘ We know it’s not going to make any difference,’ he once said.
However, Mr Miliband yesterday claimed he thought the interview would make the campaign ‘more interesting’ and that he wanted to engage with people who are ‘not listening to the election’.
David Cameron ridiculed the decision, calling Brand a ‘joke’ and saying Mr Miliband was a joke for ‘ hanging out’ with him. He said: ‘He [Brand] says don’t vote, that’s his whole view, don’t vote, it would only encourage them or something. That’s funny, it’s funny. Politics and life and election and jobs and the economy is not a joke.’
Tory candidate Andrew Percy said: ‘This is pathetic and desperate stuff from Ed Miliband but it won’t be the first time he’s sat down for a cup of tea with a hypocritical Leftie millionaire.
‘This is a man who tells people not to take part in the democratic system. He should merit no mention at all because his views are anti-democratic.’
Brand, a recovering heroin addict who has also been treated for sex addiction, styles himself as a radical Left-wing activist.
The Labour leader and his entourage were pictured after a black BMW pulled up at Brand’s rented loft apartment on Monday. In a trailer for the interview released last night, the two men are seen sitting in Brand’s kitchen, in front of burning candles, talking about tax avoidance. In the short clip, Brand is visibly enthused by Mr Miliband’s pledge to crack down on tax avoidance by international
‘A pound shop Ben Elton’
companies, responding ‘Yeah!’ when the Labour leader says the public ‘share yourthat don’t outrage’pay tax. about firms Brand compares the tax paid by average workers to that paid by Amazon, and says that he has learned that as a result of ‘geo-political influences, because of global finances’ it is ‘very difficult’ for governments to ‘leverage serious influence’. He asks Mr Miliband if he is ‘in a position to confront these powerful organisations, transnational corporations’.
Mr Miliband says: ‘You’ve got to have a government that is willing to say there’s something wrong with this and we’re going to deal with it.’
The Labour leader was also criticised for indulging a comedian who is a notorious womaniser. TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp wrote on Twitter: ‘Am I the only one who thinks Russell Brand’s reputation may sug- gest he doesn’t have the attitude to women I might hope my sons will have?
Mr Miliband was forced to defend the interview, saying: ‘Some people were saying the campaign was too boring so I decided I’d make it more interesting.’
He also claimed there was a ‘serious point’ about trying to engage with the ‘millions of people in our country who think voting doesn’t make a difference’. He said he particularly wanted to reach out to those old enough to vote for the first time.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls – who earlier this year dismissed Brand as a ‘pound shop Ben Elton’ – told Channel 4 News: ‘The fact is, if Russell Brand wants to do an interview, and Ed Miliband goes and does it and people watch it, that’s good, because it will get more people engaged in politics.’
Brand has spent his entire career courting controversy. Most infamously, he sparked a crisis at the BBC over the Sachsgate incident with Jonathan Ross.