Actor Steve Coogan has said he understands why people would vote for Reform UK instead of Labour as he described their first year in Government as “disappointing”.
The 59-year old actor and comedian, who recently starred in The Penguin Lessons, reportedly supported the Labour Party in previous elections until last year, where he backed the Green Party.
Speaking to The Guardian, Coogan said the current Labour Government is “no different from a Conservative government in neglecting ordinary people”.
“What they’re doing is putting Band-Aids on the gash in the side of the Titanic,” he said.
“The success of Reform, I lay squarely at the feet of the neoliberal consensus, which has let down working people for the last 40 years and they’re fed up. It doesn’t matter who they vote for, nothing changes for them.
“They’ll pave the way for the only alternative, which is a racist clown. Reform (UK) couldn’t organise a p*** up in a brewery, but if there’s no alternative, you understand why working people will make that choice.”
This comes after the Labour Government marked one year since winning the 2024 general election.
Coogan added: “It’s not just the fact that people are disempowered and feel like they have no autonomy. It’s compounded by the fact that these people, these multinationals, are enabled and supported by the Government to keep their foot on the neck of working people.
“If any government wants to address that extremism, what they have to do is tackle the root cause…(which is) poverty and economic decline in the post-industrial landscape, especially in the North.
“If Labour addressed that problem, Reform would go away – all their support would dissipate.”
Coogan also said he agreed “wholeheartedly” with MP Zarah Sultana’s statement shared on Thursday which said the Government had failed to “improve people’s lives” and that the “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”.
Ms Sultana also announced that she was quitting the Labour Party to co-lead a left-wing alternative with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Coogan is best known for portraying Alan Partridge, a persona which pokes fun at British broadcasters, having appeared in several TV series as well as the 2013 feature film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
The Government has been contacted for comment.
