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Nigel Farage says he’s glad Russell Brand didn’t endorse him

Ukip was 'bitten' by celebrity culture under Robert Kilroy-Silk, the Ukip leader says

Jon Stone
Monday 04 May 2015 17:39 BST
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Nigel Farage has said he is glad not to have been endorsed by comedian Russell Brand.

The radical comic today urged his fans across England and Wales to vote for Ed Miliband’s Labour party, with some caveats.

But the Ukip leader said his party had been “bitten” by “celebrity culture” when it had been led by talk-show host Robert Kilroy-Silk and that suggested he did not want Mr Brand’s endorsement.

“I’m very pleased Russell Brand hasn’t endorsed me. I don’t think it’ll make any difference to the campaign at all,” he said.

“We had a former BBC News presenter called Robert Kilroy-Silk who joined us once and I think we were rather bitten by the celebrity culture so we haven’t done much with it ever since.

“This campaign, celebrity endorsements, what the leaders’ kitchens look like, what clothes their kids wear, I think it’s very sad that we’re not, with just three campaigning days to go, discussing the big issues.”

Mr Brand has previously clashed with Mr Farage on the BBC’s Question Time programme.

“His mates in the City farted and Nigel Farage is pointing at immigrants and the disabled and holding his nose,” the Comedian said of the Ukip leader at the time, referring to Mr Farage's former job as a City trader.

In a video released on his YouTube channel Mr Brand used his supporters to vote labour unless they lived in Brighton or Scotland.

He told his Scottish fans to make up their own minds and said people in Brighton should vote Green Party to retain the party’s lone voice of Caroline Lucas in parliament.

“My view is this: If you're Scottish you don't need an English person telling you what to do, you know what to do,” he said.

“If you live in Brighton, I think it would be a travesty if we lost the voice of Caroline Lucas in Westminster out of government in this country. But anywhere else? You've gotta vote Labour, you've got to get the Conservative party out of this country."

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