Lucy Powell is facing a backlash over her defence of the decision to arrange Russell Brand’s 2015 interview with Ed Miliband, after saying there had been no indication at the time that the comedian was a sexual predator.
The Cabinet minister said she regretted helping to organise the appearance on Brand’s online show, The Trews, but argued that it was difficult to vet public figures in what she described as a period before the “social media age”.
Her comments came after Brand, 51, was sentenced to ten-and-a-half years in prison for raping one fan and sexually assaulting three television and radio workers during his rise to international fame.
Ms Powell, who was vice-chairman of Labour’s 2015 election campaign, said: “It was a long time ago, obviously 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.”
She added that “we were in very different times” and said allegations or information about individuals could not be searched for as easily as they can now.
“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,” she said.
Brand had already lost his BBC Radio 2 programme by the time of the interview, after leaving a series of lewd messages on actor Andrew Sachs’s answerphone concerning a romantic relationship with his granddaughter. He had also been dismissed by XFM for reading pornography on air and had written about his womanising in his autobiography.
Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said Labour’s claim that it “didn’t know” about Brand’s behaviour in 2015 was not credible.
“His disgusting call to Andrew Sachs happened in 2008, & there were countless public appearances where his gross behaviour was plain for all to see,” she said in a post on X.
Ms Trott said Brand’s views and treatment of women were “vile & out there”, adding that Mr Miliband should also be held accountable for appearing on the programme.
She also criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a 2014 post urging Brand to “keep going” after the comedian faced criticism over renting his luxury London home from a company based in a tax haven. Ms Trott said it was “extraordinary” that he had described the criticism as a media campaign to discredit Brand given his public history at the time.
Andy Burnham was also criticised after posting in 2014 urging Brand to “keep going” in the same row.
Asked about the controversy, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she was “not someone who engages in hindsight analysis” and that she did not know whether Labour figures had understood the full extent of Brand’s conduct.
“Conservatives believe in the principle of you are innocent until you are proven guilty and he has now been proven guilty,” she said, praising the women and journalists who had worked to bring his actions to light.
Ms Powell said women should report abuse when it happened, promising: “You will be supported. You will be believed. You will be taken seriously.”
She said that if women had felt able to come forward 15 or 20 years ago, Brand “would have been stopped in his tracks sooner and we would have had less victims as a consequence”.
