Conservative leader launches Welfare That Works policy document
In an interview this morning, Lucy Powell defended her role in arranging for Ed Miliband to do an interview with Russell Brand during the election campaign in 2015, when Miliband was Labour leader. Powell was vice chair of the election campaign and was said to be one of those encouraging Miliband doing the interview with Brand, who was already controversial at the time but was also seen as being influential with younger voters.
Powell told Sky News that Brand at the time had a “powerful platform” with his online show, The Trews.
It was a long time ago, obviously and had I or Ed Miliband or anybody at the time had any sense at all that this was someone who was a sexual predator, who was involved in these sorts of crimes.
I think like anybody who would have paid to go to his show, would have watched him on TV, who was his employer at the time, who had interactions with him – anybody, including those of us who were involved in that at the time – would look back and really regret that, knowing today what we now know.
Look, we were in very different times. We weren’t in the social media age at the time, so where you could maybe search things up and see allegations or things about somebody at the time.
And, as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time then, of course, no one would have done that.
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