Comedian Russell Brand backs Labour in UK elections

ANKARA 

British comedian and activist Russell Brand has reversed his stance against voting to call on his supporters to vote Labour in the U.K.’s general elections this week.

Speaking on his YouTube show, The Trews, on Monday, he said: “There’s loads of things I could complain about with (Labour leader) Ed Miliband.

“But what’s important is this bloke will be in parliament and I think this bloke will listen to us. So on 7 May, vote Labour.”

"I know I’ve been 'Mr Don’t Vote' but what I mean is politics isn’t something we can just be involved in once every five years, not just elections. Democracy is something you should be constantly involved in," he added.

Brand declared in an interview with BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman in 2013 that he never voted because of “absolute indifference and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery and deceit of the political class”.

He has since been a prominent activist against inequality, tax avoidance and corporate political power.

'Decisive action'

Miliband was interviewed by Brand on The Trews last week and discussed the influence of big business and merits of electoral democracy.

“What I heard Ed Miliband say is that, if we speak, he will listen. So on that basis, I think we’ve got no choice but to take decisive action to end the danger of the Conservative party,” Brand said.

He criticized Prime Minister David Cameron of the center-right Conservative Party for dismissing the interview as a “joke”.

“David Cameron might think I’m a joke but I don’t think there’s anything funny about what the Conservative party have been doing to this country and we have to stop them,” Brand said.

However, his support for Labour came with caveats.

- Huge following

He encouraged voters in the constituency of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to vote for her, saying it would be a “travesty” if parliament lost the left-wing politician’s voice.

“If you’re Scottish, you don’t need an English person telling you what to do,” he added in a nod to the separatist Scottish National Party, which is currently running on a left-of-Labour platform in the north of the country.

Brand's reversal of position will be welcomed by Labour, as he has a huge following of politically disaffected young people.

“Now all that Russell Brand’s fans have to do is build a time machine so that they can meet the deadline for voter registration,” tweeted Michael Deacon, a journalist with the center-right Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The voter registration deadline passed two weeks ago, and considering Brand’s ardent anti-voting position, commentators are questioning how big an impact the comedian’s change of mind will actually have.

World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, and actors Martin Freeman and Steve Coogan as well as other prominent celebrities have also come out in support of Labour.