Letter from the Whitehall Editor: Miliband meets Brand – just why did he do it?

Oh to have been a fly on the wall of the Labour strategy meeting that discussed whether Ed Miliband should agree to an interview with Russell Brand. “But just think of the reach it will give us,” you can hear the proponents arguing. “Yes – but it’s Russell Brand,” you can hear the opponents replying. “He’ll make Ed look like a twit.”

In the event, Miliband’s 16-minute election grilling on Brand’s YouTube channel, The Trews, was not the disaster the critics feared but nor was it a convincing triumph. For a start, Brand allowed Miliband to speak for only seven minutes and 40 seconds. The rest of the time it was the comedian showing again how fond he is of his own voice.

“There is an unelected elite that really control things behind the scenes,” Brand pronounced. “The suffragettes may have given their lives for the rights to vote. But the people in power worked out, ‘OK we’ve got to give the vote to women, let’s just make sure that those votes mean very little’.” How do you even start to unravel a conspiracy theory like that?

It didn’t help that Miliband looked dog-tired and wary at the bizarre line of questioning. His approach to the interview was to try and appeal to Brand’s audience without seeming to fawn on the man. And to an extent he largely succeeded. He sounded principled and sincere and the visual statement of Miliband, in a suit and tie, calmly explaining why politics mattered to the bejewelled and hyperbolic Brand was quite effective.

But it is hard to see the interview having any great impact on the comedian’s army of devotees.

i@independent.co.uk