The 49-year-old comedian slowly and silently made his way into Westminster Magistrates’ Court

International news via Reuters:

British actor and comedian Russell Brand appeared in a London court on Friday to face charges of rape and multiple counts of sex assault in cases relating to four separate women more than two decades ago.

Brand, once one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and former husband of U.S. pop singer Katy Perry, has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations about him were first aired two years ago.

The 49-year-old comedian, wearing sunglasses and a dark shirt unbuttoned to his chest, slowly picked his way through a throng of reporters and cameramen into Westminster Magistrates’ Court without speaking.

In the dock, he was read out the charges he faced of rape, oral rape, indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault involving the four women between 1999 and 2005.

He stared ahead as prosecutor Suki Dhadda detailed a summary of the charges which involved raping a woman in her hotel room, groping one of the women’s breasts and buttocks, and trying to pull another of the complainants into a toilet. 

He did not enter a plea, and spoke only to confirm his name and address and to thank the judge, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring, when he said he was free to leave on conditional bail until his next hearing at London’s Old Bailey court on May 30.

“You face a number of allegations,” Goldspring told him, saying Brand risked prison or a fine if he did not attend court. 

After the charges were first announced last month, Brand said in a video statement posted to social media that in his younger days, before getting married and having children, he had been a fool and a sex addict but “what I never was, was a rapist”. 

“I have never engaged in non-consensual activity,” he said in the video. “I’m now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

In the 2000s, Brand was a regular on British screens, known for his flamboyant style and appearance. He worked for the BBC and starred in a number of films including “Get Him to the Greek” before marrying Perry in 2010. They divorced 14 months later.

By the early 2020s, he had faded from mainstream culture, appearing primarily on his internet channel where he airs his views on U.S. politics and free speech.

In September 2023, the Sunday Times newspaper and Channel 4 TV’s documentary show “Dispatches” reported allegations of sex offences against him, and London police opened an investigation some weeks later.

Brand, who said last year he had become a Christian, rejected those accusations. 

“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said.

Reporting by Michael HoldenEditing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean

Farage has been mindful of voters’ concerns over some of Trump’s positions

International news via Reuters:

Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party won a vacant parliamentary seat, a mayoralty and a host of local council posts on Friday in early results from elections leader Nigel Farage said proved it was now the real opposition.

The populist Reform, led by the veteran campaigner for Brexit, hopes Thursday’s local elections in England will mark the breakdown of a century of domination of British politics by the governing Labour Party and opposition Conservatives.

In the most closely watched contest, for the vacant parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, Reform won by just six votes after a full recount, giving Farage’s party its fifth seat in the House of Commons. Labour had won the seat in last year’s national election with a majority of almost 15,000. 

“It’s been a huge night for Reform,” Farage told reporters. “This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us.”

The Conservatives – historically one of the most successful parties of any modern democracy – were now “toast”, he said.

“You’re witnessing the end of a party that’s been around since 1832.”

Reform won the mayoral race in Greater Lincolnshire: Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative government minister who defected to Reform after losing her seat last year, became its most powerful elected politician yet, with responsibility for an area covering about a million people.

It was also leading all parties in the initial tally of councillors elected, though only a small number of more than 1,600 seats up for grabs on local authorities had so far been declared. 

The fracturing of the political landscape has given an opening to Farage to stake his claim to represent the right of British politics, since a general election last year consigned the Conservatives to historic defeat, losing more than half of their support.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer, has since suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.

His government has raised taxes and cut benefits for the elderly, saying the moves were necessary to restore financial stability after 14 years of Conservative mismanagement.

Farage, long a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, has been mindful of voters’ concerns over some of Trump’s positions which have hurt the right-wing vote in countries such as Canada, and has distanced himself from Trump over tariffs and Ukraine.

“Reform UK look like the real deal this morning,” said Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at polling firm Ipsos. “That said, with increased support comes scrutiny. Where they do win, they will need to show they can deliver the change their voters want.” 

CONSERVATIVES SUFFER

Voters cast their ballots on Thursday for local authority seats across much of England and six high-profile mayoral elections, with results coming in throughout Friday.

Runcorn and Helsby was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after its Labour lawmaker quit following a conviction for punching one of his constituents. It was Labour’s 49th safest seat at last year’s general election. 

A Labour spokesperson said the results showed that voters “clearly expect the government to move faster” to change Britain after 14 years of Conservative rule.

The Conservatives, under the new leadership of right-leaning Kemi Badenoch, suffered expected losses having yet to recover from last year’s defeat. Co-chairman Nigel Huddleston said winning back trust in the party would “take us a long time”.

In her mayoral victory speech, Jenkyns pledged to bring an end to “soft touch Britain” and said asylum seekers should be held in tents, not in hotels as they often are in Britain. 

“The rebuilding begins here … we’re going to have a Britain where we put British people first,” she said.

Labour managed to hold on despite losing votes to reform in three of the other mayoral contests: in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster.

Labour’s support plunged by 23 percentage points in North Tyneside and by 11 percentage points in Doncaster compared to 2021.

Ros Jones, who won for Labour in Doncaster, said her party was being punished for its moves to reduce spending. Asked if Starmer’s government was listening, Jones said: “I would say ‘no’.”

Reform was founded as the Brexit Party in 2018 and written off in its early years as a one-issue party only interested in limiting immigration. But it has seen a surge in its support over recent months, beating Labour and the Conservatives in some opinion polls.

It hopes the results on Friday will give it a chance to build up its local infrastructure and cement its place as the best positioned party to challenge Labour and the Conservatives at the next national election, expected in 2029.

Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; additional reporting by William James, Catarina Demony and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Kate Holton and Philippa Fletcher