Russell Brand's matey time with Labour: Disgraced comic invited to give drug talk by MP later forced out by cocaine and rent boys sting - and backed hard-Left Corbyn

Labour is facing serious questions over senior figures' attempts to woo Russell Brand at the height of his fame after the disgraced comic was convicted of rape and sexual assault. Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband are among those who feted the now 51-year-old as they sought to harness his following to help the party win over voters and get back into power after the 2010 election. And today old footage has resurfaced of Brand enjoying a matey chat about his years as a drug addict with a senior Labour MP whose career was later ended when it emerged he offered to buy cocaine for rent boys.

The former BBC Radio 2 DJ, who is facing a lengthy prison sentence for rape, turned a meeting of the Home Affairs Committee in 2012 into a circus after attending at the invitation of Keith Vaz. Brand turned up in a sleeveless vest and ripped jeans and wearing several gold chains to speak about his battle to get clean. MPs including Mr Vaz laughing when he joked about the 'rough' experience of being arrested 12 times. But after calling several of them 'mate' he later clashed with Labour and Tory figures over his views and excitable backchat at the hearing.

When the Labour MP David Winnick, then aged 78, accused him of turning the session into a 'variety show' he hit back, saying: 'You are providing a little bit of variety, though. You are making it more like Dad's Army.' The event was a huge embarrassment for committee chairman Mr Vaz, a former Labour minister under Sir Tony Blair , who was accused of publicity seeking with his invitation to the already polarising Brand. Brand, a former heroin addict, arrived in a sleeveless vest and covered in gold chains to speak about his battle to get clean The event was a huge embarrassment for committee chairman Mr Vaz, who was accused of publicity seeking with his invitation to Brand, who was already by then a polarising figure Russell Brand interviewing then-Labour leader Ed Miliband shortly before the 2015 general election In an ironic turn of events Mr Vaz stepped down as Leicester East MP at the 2019 General Election, having been handed a six-month suspension from the Commons after he was caught offering to buy Class A drugs for male sex workers.

Brand's openly misogynistic behaviour, detailed at length in his own memoir, did not deter the Left's most prominent figures from cosying up to him. Nor did the infamous 2008 'Sachsgate' scandal in which Brand, on his BBC Radio 2 show, left voicemails for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, boasting of how he had slept with Sachs's granddaughter. Instead, from the likes of Andy Burnham to Ed Miliband, the now-convicted rapist was lauded for his anti-Tory and anti-establishment image that made him a darling of the Left.

In 2014, Mr Burnham, then shadow health secretary, tweeted his support for Brand and praised him for using his celebrity status 'to help others'. The then-Labour leader Mr Miliband also courted Brand's support ahead of the 2015 election, being interviewed by the comedian in his £2million penthouse. By that time his discovery of 'progressive' politics had raised alarm bells. Former activist ElleMae O'Hagen took to social media today to say how she and other women were ostracised when they suggested he was a wrong'un. 'In 2013/4, Brand started to become interested in progressive politics.

He said progressive things publicly, went on Newsnight etc. At the time I was involved in progressive grassroots work myself,' she wrote on the BlueSky platform. 'Brand started turning up at demonstrations (in a chauffer driven car, naturally) and asking to join meetings. 'In these arenas, a gender divide started to emerge: a lot of men were very excited about Brand's interest; women - like me - were more cautious about welcoming him in, given his history. 'This led to some blazing rows online and in real life.

At the time, I wasn't aware that he was a sex offender, I was just concerned about his sexism. But even that led the most egregious misogynistic abuse from my peers... 'I got shouted down by men I had organised alongside for years. Not because I was accusing Brand of any particular crime, but because I was pointing to things he had said and done that were on the public record as evidence that he might have dodgy attitudes towards women, and we should be careful.'

After Labour's terrible showing in the 2015 election Brand switched his support to Jeremy Corbyn, who would go on to lead the party to an even greater electoral hammering in 2019. Writing in his customary word-soup style for the Huffington Post ahead of the 2017 election that resulted in a hung parliament, Brand said: 'Compared to the buffet of neo-liberal homogeneity that we chewed through in 2015, the possibility of voting for a politician that offers change seems oddly exotic.

Mr Vaz stepped down at the 2019 general election, having been handed a six-month suspension from the Commons after he was caught offering to buy Class A drugs for rent boys 'Jeremy Corbyn has somehow been in politics for decades with his integrity perfectly preserved, like his much derided beard has functioned as hairy formaldehyde for his principles. 'Whether it's the Iraq War or badger-baiting, Corbyn has been allied with common sense and compassion in pretty much every parliamentary argument. 'Even the more 'controversial' stuff in his search history doesn't hold up to scrutiny - meeting with the IRA; he wasn't at a barn dance in Londonderry downing Guinness in a balaclava, he was perspicaciously acknowledging the necessity for negotiation in pursuit of a peaceful solution. 'Which is what happened, years later.

You could say that he was ahead of his time. Or a leader.' Later, in 2022, they both joined a protest outside Parliament in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who was fighting extradition to the United States. In 2017 Brand appeared alongside then shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth during the Labour Party Conference to again discuss addiction. He called for drugs to be decriminalised, saying: 'As long as drugs are criminalised, you can't regulate them.

As they continue to be criminalised they will - de facto - be stigmatised. 'When you're talking about some of the problems people are experiencing in police cells and prisons is because a good many of them shouldn't be there in the first place – they are suffering from mental health issues and put them in prison as a response to it.' Mr Ashworth spoke about growing up with an alcoholic father who died as a result of his illness, adding: 'The number of people dying because of drug issues has risen by 48 per cent in 10 years.

Deaths related to drug misuse are at their highest level since 1983.' 'I love Russell Brand... he's right about so many things' Labour MP Chris Bryant, now the Northern Ireland Secretary, was effusive in his praise of Brand in a newspaper column in October 2013. 'I love Russell Brand. He's immensely clever and funny,' Sir Chris wrote in The Independent. 'He can turn his mind to any topic. He can make an argument sparkle with intensity.'

Sir Chris added that the comedian - who had recently appeared on BBC Newsnight - was 'right about so many things, not least the gap between rich and poor'. However, he went on to admonish Brand for his 'cheap' talk about revolution, writing: 'It's a luxury to sit back and wait for the revolution which Brand so confidently predicts, while all around the poor are being ground down. 'A luxury my constituents can't afford. So, correction, I love/hate Russell Brand.' 'Tried to join @rustyrockets revolution' Jess Phillips, a Labour former minister, posted on social media in October 2013 how she had 'tried to join' Brand's 'revolution' as he forayed into politics.

She wrote on X, then Twitter: 'Tried to join @rustyrockets revolution am waiting to hear. Not sure if you just turn up or is whole idea that you don't turn up?#firsttimer' A few days previously, Ms Phillips had tried to capture Brand's attention directly, asking him on the site: 'I tell you what lets do it lets get the poorest in this country to engage politically, hear their voice. I am up for it. You?' In 2016, Ms Phillips posted a picture of Brand together with her brother Luke Trainor at a substance recovery centre in Birmingham.

Like Brand, Mr Trainor has previously spoken about his battle with addiction. Ms Phillips wrote at the time: 'Great to see @rustyrockets in Brum substance recovery Centre but it's my brother who makes proudest #endthestigma'. Speaking to Times Radio this week, Ms Phillips said she felt 'relief' at Brand's conviction for rape and sexual assault during his showbiz heyday. 'Relief, actually, is the way that I felt and I think many women across the country will have felt yesterday as justice was meted out to Russell Brand,' the Labour MP said. 'Especially because of the attention that the trial has had and some of the arguments and evidence that came out during the trial. 'I think that the women in the country would have felt deeply hurt had the verdict gone another way.'

Ms Phillips paid tribute to both journalists, who uncovered the allegations against Brand, and the Metropolitan Police over his conviction.