Jeremy Corbyn has been having a difficult time of late. The Labour leadership favourite has become increasingly tetchy with the media after facing questions about his links to a Holocaust denier, as well as being the subject of criticism from a host of former Labour bigwigs. However, there is one man who he can rely on to fight his corner; step forward Russell Brand.
Although Ed Miliband had to pay a late night visit to the comedian-turned-revolutionary’s £2 million apartment in order to win his endorsement during the general election, Brand has come out for Corbyn all on his own accord. Joining a long list of celebrity Corbynistas — who so far include Charlotte Church, Maxine Peake and Mary Beard — Brand has come to the left winger’s defence in an episode of his YouTube series The Trews.
Brand — who insists he does not want to be involved in ‘leadership elections or voting type stuff anymore’ — says Corbyn is an unfair target of criticism ‘simply because he is in public talking out on behalf of ordinary people’. Alas he has less kind words to say about Tony Blair — who has urged Labour members not to vote for Corbyn — describing him as having this ‘really eerie quality to him’.
‘Let’s have a look at this controversy around Jeremy Corbyn and get put straight by the trouble free no skeletons in the closet Tony Blair’
As for the other three candidates, he says that Yvetter Cooper, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham are all too similar:
‘The other candidates in the Labour leadership election – and I don’t really want to be involved in leadership elections or voting-type stuff any more – but they are interchangeable, even though they are different genders, like the Burnham one, the Cooper one. I think I have met some of them but they all sort of just float around and seem like they could have podded off of him [Tony Blair]. And that’s what worries me about it.’
Still, given how Russell Brand’s endorsement of Labour panned out in the general election, Corbyn may wish to distance himself from this one, as this cartoon in this week’s Spectator suggests:
‘Don’t even think about it’
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