Russell Brand got into an argument with Channel 4 News reporter Paraic O’Brien on Monday after he was asked about the cost of his house.
View this video on YouTube
Brand was at Downing Street with some of the residents of the New Era housing estate in Hoxton, east London, who are concerned they may be forced out of their homes after an American private equity company bought the estate earlier this year.
Residents are worried Westbrook Partners plans to refurbish current flats, build new accommodation, and raise the rent of the affordable housing to current market levels, Channel 4 News reported.
The Guardian said such a move could see rent on a two-bedroom flat in the estate rise from £800 a month to over £2,000, making accommodation unaffordable to the current tenants, some of whom have lived on the estate for decades.
The previous management had promised to keep the rent at its current level until 2016, and earlier this month, Jules Pipe, the mayor of Hackney, wrote to Westbrook asking for the New Era estate to be sold to a local housing association and for the private equity firm to honour the agreement to not increase rent.
Westbrook has since released a statement saying rents would not change during the first half of next year.
Yesterday, Brand and New Era residents protested outside the Westbrook office in central London and marched to Downing Street.
During the interview, O’Brien put it to Brand that part of the problem was super wealthy individuals buying up property and the subsequent demands this was putting on the London property market.
Then New Era resident Lindsey Garrett stepped in to defend Brand.
She told O'Brien:
At least Russell Brand is actually standing up, regardless of how big his house is, and coming down and helping ordinary people.
Let's see if David Cameron is willing to do that. Let's see if David Cameron is willing to come out of his big house and help us, but he isn't, is he, but Russell Brand has and thank god there's people like him who are prepared to step out and help people like us, otherwise we wouldn't be here today, we wouldn't have 300,000 signatures, we would have been kicked out and booted out of London.
So thank god.
After the segment aired, O'Brien defended his interview with a series of tweets on Monday evening.
1/3 Few thoughts re tonight's #NewEraEstate report: Do I think that rich people aren't entitled to campaign/care? Of course not.
2/3 Do I think I did justice to the #NewEraEstate campaign & bigger issue in 3mins of vaguely watchable TV? Yes
3/3 Is it my job to test tension between private circumstances & publicly held views of celebrities? Yes
And this morning he referenced Brand calling him a "snide" and the debate their conversation has generated.
Holy God. Reading my timeline from overnight. Looks like come the revolution, we 'snides' are totally f*#ked : )
Russell Brand released a video on Monday afternoon talking about the interview with Channel 4 News.
