General Election 2015: 'Miliband: the Interview' should have been titled 'Russell Brand: the Monologue'

Miliband could hardly get a word in as Brand ranted about 'powerful elites' and bankers

Russell Brand interviews Labour leader Ed Miliband for his internet programme ‘The Trews’

Though it was billed as ‘Miliband: the Interview’ the 15 minute exchange between the comic and the Labour leader could as well have been entitled ‘Russell Brand: the monologue, with occasional observations from Ed Miliband’.

After welcoming his guest, Brand set out to explain why he never votes. It is because of the ‘powerful elites’ who are beyond the control of elected politicians. He would have said more, except that Ed Miliband interrupted after the best part of a minute to say “you’re wrong”.

Soon, they were at cross purposes. Miliband had come to Russell Brand’s house so that he could explain why there is a point to voting. He listed good things, such as the NHS, the equal pay act, and the minimum wage, which came about through a combination of popular pressure and the actions of elected politicians.

Brand wanted to talk about crooked bankers. “What we see is bankers committing fraud and no one going to prison, HSBC committing fraud and no one going to prison…” he complained.

---

Are you undecided about who to vote for on 7 May? Are you confused about what the parties stand for and what they are offering? Take this interactive quiz to help you decide who to vote for...

Click here to launch

---

Here Miliband cut in to say: “Before we get on to HSBC, do you accept my point?”

The politician was demanding a straight answer from the interviewer – and not getting it. This was no normal interview.

Another aspect of this interview, which you would not see happening on Newsnight, was that the interviewer twice picked up a huge bottle of water from the floor, to drink direct from the bottle. While he was slaking his thirst, Ed Miliband was able to make some uninterrupted observations about inequality. Brand persisted in demanding punishment for bankers, driving the politician to say that actually, there are bigger questions than whether some bankers have escaped justice. “Banks are a good thing, not a bad thing,” Miliband declared.

“Couldn’t we see bankers going to prison?” Brand replied, as if that were the obvious response.

They discussed Rupert Murdoch. Brand thinks he wields too much power, Miliband thinks he is not as powerful as he used to be.

Later, the issue of election euphoria cropped up. It has not been much in evidence this month, and Ed Miliband is glad of that. “I’m not looking for euphoria, I’m looking for a sense of this is real, concrete, deliverable change,” he said.

“The fundamental problem with this country is if people think it’s run for somebody else and the somebody else is probably somebody right at the top of society, they’ve got the access, the influence, the power and it’s not run for them. That’s what we’ve got to change.”

Brand replied: “That is exactly it. What we need to feel, normal people…”

That was not the only time that Brand billed himself as one of the “normal people”.

Brand presaged one of his questions by saying: “I hope it doesn’t sound adolescent.”

“I’m sure it won’t,” Ed Miliband replied. Whether that reply was born of euphoria or not, it was certainly optimistic.

Russell Brand is 39.