Russell Brand releases first extract from Ed Miliband interview – but has Labour leader convinced him to vote?
Trailer hints that the Labour leader may have converted Brand, the comedian who has never voted in his life
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Russell Brand has released a trailer of his much-anticipated interview with Ed Miliband and hints that he may have been convinced to vote.
The comedian famously urges followers not to bother voting and has never done so in his life but Miliband's late-night visit to Brand's Shoreditch home on Monday fuelled speculation that Brand had been persuaded to endorse Labour at the 11th hour.
In the trailer, Brand grills Miliband over corporate tax avoidance and at the end of the clip, it hints that the comedian may have been won over by the Labour leader's argument.
"Of course people share your outrage about companies that don't pay their taxes and it can be dealt with," Miliband said. "But you've got to have a government that's willing to say 'there's something wrong with this' and we're going to deal with it."
Brand, looking surprised and excited, responds by asking: "You're that Government?" "Yeah," replies Mr Miliband.
The interview has caused excitement in an otherwise dull day of election campaigning. David Cameron, responding to news that Miliband had visited Brand's home, dismissed the comedian as a "joke" and someone he does not have time to "hang about with".
Brand hit back, taking to Twitter to rebut Cameron's jibe and mocked him for forgetting which football team he supported and posting an ironic message along with the infamous Bullingdon Club photo featuring the Prime Minister and Boris Johnson in their Oxford University days.
And speaking on the campaign trail today, Miliband said there were big differences in opinion between him and Brand, who has never voted, famously urges his followers not to bother on polling day.
Defending his decision to accept the interview invitation, Mr Miliband said that if he talked only to people he agreed with, he "wouldn't be doing many interviews".
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