Russell Brand latest: Met Police investigating sexual offence claims as comedian starts new Rumble live stream

Russell Brand was widely condemned in 2008 after prank-calling an emergency rape phoneline during a stand-up routine.

The controversial incident is attracting renewed attention, after Brand, 48, accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women, with the alleged incidents taking place between 2006 and 2013.

Brand vehemently denied the allegations in a video released before the report by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches was made public, saying that his relationships have been “absolutely always consensual”.

The video-streaming platform Rumble says its CEO received a “disturbing” letter from the head of a UK parliamentary committee, which called for Russell Brand to be denied advertising revenue on the site due to recent allegations of rape and sexual harassment.

The platform, in a statement posted on X, said on Wednesday that its CEO Chris Pavlovski had received the letter from Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the culture, media and sport committee.

“We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so,” the statement said.

Brand has 1.4 million followers on Rumble, which has attracted a large number of right-wing content creators with its loose approach to moderation.

Russell Brand is currently at the centre of a sex abuse scandal after four women accused the ex-BBC presenter of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse.

The Essex-born comedian and actor, 48, pre-emptively and vehemently denied the allegations against him. The claims were first made public this weekend following a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

One of the women who spoke out against the Rock of Ages actor alleged he raped her at his apartment in Los Angeles on 1 July 2012, which would have been shortly after his relationship with pop star Katy Perry ended in divorce.

The Independent has contacted Perry’s representatives for comment.

Details about the celebrity couple’s turbulent relationship came to light in the weeks and months after separating, with Brand’s behaviour facing scrutiny following the release of the Perry-focused music documentary Part of Me in 2012.

The decision by YouTube to “demonetise” Russell Brand is a slightly curious one. They certainly hit him where it hurts: in his bank balance. About £1 million a year. Yet they’ve allowed his existing back catalogue of conspiracism and gobbledegook “wellness” material to remain up; and he can knock out as much self-aggrandising nonsense as he wants, provided he doesn’t make any money out of it. I think we know that the first post-demonetisation Brand video of the new era will be like: baroque, you might say.

So, he’s been sort of half-cancelled by YouTube. It’s as if the board and its advisors couldn’t quite decide what to do about him, and they opted for a messy compromise. Like all compromises, however, no one ends up satisfied. The Brand-haters will think YouTube are still offering this despicable misogynist a platform to air his unhinged views and exercise his obscene passion for self-love. Yet the Brand fanbase will conclude that “they” – the world government of fevered imagination – have ordered YouTube to do it.

Read more from Sean O’Grady here:

I was not a 16-year-old schoolgirl when I went to interview Russell Brand six years ago. I was a professional woman in my thirties, a journalist from a national newspaper doing my job. When I arrived, I shook his hand. When I left – after he’d complimented my “Malteser” eyes – he offered me a cuddle, an exchange that reveals a lot about how Brand sees women. The tip of a misogynist attitude, which I wanted to confront him about. But then, as now, the only victim he recognised was himself.

Today, Brand faces very serious and specific allegations of rape and sexual assault from a number of women and the police have begun inquiries. As the investigation into him takes place it bears all the signs of a comedy MeToo moment. But as Brand’s supporters claim he is innocent until he is tried in a legal forum, a larger cultural shift is taking place of women who want a wider discussion about consent and who – like me – think the age-old defence that “if nothing illegal happened then there is no problem” no longer cuts it.

When Katie Glass challenged him six years ago about his sexual exploits, she found the newly styled guru utterly lacking in self-awareness and contrition. What he told her revealed everything we know about how he sees women – and what is flawed about the age of consent.

Read more here:

Scandal-ridden comedian. Hollywood husband. Drug addict-turned-wellness-guru. Left-wing activist. Conspiracy theorist. Over the course of two decades in the spotlight, the British stand-up and presenter Russell Brand has put forward many different personas to the public. Now, another, darker side to the comic has emerged, as he has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotionally abusing four women.

Brand released a video on Saturday 17 September before the allegations were made public to deny “serious criminal allegations” ,which he said related to his “promiscuous” past.

The 48-year-old comedian and actor said he “absolutely refutes” the claims and suggested two “mainstream media outlets” were making a “coordinated” attack against him. Later that day, a joint Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches investigation was released, revealing the allegations against him.

Brand’s comedy style has always relied on shock tactics and thrived on controversy, but a look back at his story – from the so-called “Sachsgate” scandal to previous comments from other celebrities – prompts uncomfortable questions.

Katie Rosseinsky has more:

It felt inevitable, to be honest. Women in comedy were all braced for it. Within minutes of the Russell Brand allegations being made public – allegations Brand has denied in no uncertain terms – people swept in to criticise everyone who was aware of the rumours around him and “did nothing”. Responsibility was placed on us, those who were quietly protecting each other but were deemed to have not taken enough action to prevent this kind of alleged behaviour. And my God, we are so tired.

Women in comedy work hard to keep themselves and each other safe from problematic male colleagues, writes comedian Vix Leyton. Will the allegations against Russell Brand ignite the change the industry needs?

Read the full piece here:

Hours before a string of explosive allegations were made about Russell Brand’s alleged behaviour towards women, the comedian had already set the conspiracy theory wheel turning by releasing his own video, in which he “absolutely refutes” claims of sexual wrongdoing.

With an audience of 6.5 million subscribers, many attracted to his YouTube channel due to its alignment with the anti-vaccine movement and Covid denialism, Brand has spent years repeatedly lashing out at the “mainstream media”.

It was no surprise therefore that his two-minute-long denial accused the Sunday Times and Channel 4 of a “co-ordinated attack” against him, as he questioned: “Is there another agenda at play?”

Read the full story:

Russell Brand’s punishment by YouTube has drawn attention to another, alternative video-sharing site: Rumble.

While Brand has not been banned from YouTube in the wake of recent allegations, the site did say that it would remove the ability to monetise his videos there through advertising. In the wake of that recent announcement, some – including ex-Fox News presenter Dan Bongino, who is both a shareholder in the platform and one of its biggest stars – have suggested that Brand could instead take his videos to that site.

He would be just the latest alternative creator, many of whom are conservatives who have run into moderation issues on other more mainstream sites, to focus on the platform. Already, even as he was able to use YouTube as normal, he has gathered a sizeable following on Rumble: Brand has 1.4 million followers, nearly as many as the 2.3 million he has on TikTok.

Read more about Rumble here:

Ed Miliband said he regrets giving an interview to Russell Brand ahead of the 2015 general election — but the former Labour leader said he felt “duty-bound” at the time to counter the comedian’s comments about not voting.

Asked at Politico’s Energy and Climate UK event on Wednesday whether he regretted the interview, Mr Miliband, who is now Labour’s shadow energy security and net zero secretary, said: “Yes, of course.

“I think the allegations that have come to light are horrific and my solidarity is with the women who have come forward to tell their stories.

“I did lots of interview during that campaign. Russell Brand was going round saying people shouldn’t vote. I went and did an interview on his programme because I wanted young people to get out and vote.

“But obviously knowing what I know now, obviously I regret doing it.”

Put to him that some would say it showed a lack of judgment, Mr Miliband replied: “Look, hindsight is a wonderful thing. As I say, I did lots and lots of interviews.

“This was someone who was gaining notoriety at that point for saying to people, ‘Do not vote because it will make no difference’. And I felt duty-bound, if there was an opportunity to do so, to say to young people in particular, who he was targeting… that it would make a difference.”