Former Labour leader Ed Miliband says he regrets doing his 2015 interview with Russell Brand, and "wouldn't have done it" if he knew about the allegations the star is now facing.
The comedian and actor welcomed Miliband onto his The Trews YouTube channel eight years ago, as part of his general election campaign. Miliband has said he agreed to do the interview to encourage people to vote after Brand claimed voting made no difference. However, since then the Get Him To The Greek star has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse – all of which, Russell denies. The former Labour leader says he now. regrets doing the interview.
He said: "Russell Brand was rather notoriously going round saying people shouldn't vote because voting made no difference. That's why I did an interview with him because I wanted to get to the people who he was influencing to say voting does make a difference. But of course, knowing what I know now - and I was not aware of these allegations at the time about Russell Brand - I wouldn't have done that interview and I regret doing it."
Ed Miliband says he regrets doing the interview with Russell Brand (Youtube/RussellBrand)Mr Miliband said on Radio 4's Today programme that he had given "hundreds of interviews" during the election campaign. He found the recent allegations against Brand "appalling" and said he stood "in solidarity with those women who have come forward to tell their stories". The Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero also rejected a claim by former Labour adviser Ayesha Hazarika that there were "no women in the room" when he agreed to the interview.
He added that "in that era - which was not that long ago - people like Russell Brand were given too much latitude, because he had done bad things previously, and I think all of us need to reflect on that". Allegations against Brand surfaced in a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
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Brand recently shared a video statement denying 'criminal' and 'very serious' allegations, which he said had been put to him in the form of a letter and email from an unnamed television programme and newspaper. In a statement shared on his YouTube and via The Sunday Times, Brand denied all allegations, saying: "I've received two extremely disturbing letters or a letter and an email. One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.
"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream when I was in the newspapers all the time when I was in the movies. And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.
"Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that. Then almost too transparent, and I'm being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?"
* If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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