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'Milibrand' interview: taps, cockney accents and fighting for airtime

Russell Brand quizzes Ed Miliband on tax evasion and media ownership, but manages to steal the spotlight

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published 29 April 2015

Russell Brand has released his much-anticipated interview with Ed Miliband – an encounter David Cameron had already dismissed as a "joke".

Russell Brand interview: why Ed took the risk

In the "relatively tame" 15-minute interview that was broadcast on Brand's YouTube channel, the Labour leader was quizzed on tax evasion, media ownership and what he could realistically change if his party won, the Huffington Post reports.

Miliband said he was seeking "real, deliverable, concrete change" but conceded that: "Change is hard. Change takes time." He also rejected Brand's view that voting doesn't matter.

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Commentators were quick to point out that the interview was as much about Brand as it was about Miliband. The comedian took 46 seconds to ask his first question – only stopping when Miliband interrupted – and spent more than half of the interview talking.

"At times, Miliband came across as an enthusiastic student interjecting in someone else's lecture than a candidate for future prime minister being interviewed," said the Huffington Post.

Miliband "also appears to put on a Cockney accent," at one point calling the NHS the "national 'ealth service," Buzzfeed reported.

Although conceding that Miliband didn't "mess up", The Spectator called the interview "depressing."

"It's simply not very enlightening. Brand comes across as the mad man cornering the boring person in a pub because he thinks he might agree with him."

On social media, Miliband was widely praised for taking a risk and using alternative media in an attempt to appeal to disenfranchised young voters.

But not everyone was convinced.

And all some could focus on were Brand's kitchen appliances.

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Election 2015 Russell Brand

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