SCOTTISH actor Brian Cox has said he finds Nigel Farage “slightly fascist” as he hit out at a refusal to discuss Brexit during the General Election campaign.
The Succession star appeared on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show alongside the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and former Tory culture secretary Nadine Dorries.
During the discussion, Cox said, “I worry about the Conservatives” and that “Nigel Farage (below) is not doing any good at all”.
It comes after a recent poll showed Farage’s Reform party ahead of the Tories for the first time.
Cox continued: “I mean he’s (Farage) really ruining that party (the Conservatives) and if I was a Conservative voter I would really be worried about what’s happening to my party.
“I’m not a Conservative and I never will be a Conservative voter, I want to state that first and foremost, but I do worry about his influence and I find him slightly fascist quite frankly.”
Points on Brexit
Cox added that the “demon we don’t talk about” is Brexit before reeling off a list of figures which show the damage it has done to the economy.
Brian Cox: "There's still the demon that we don't talk about, which is brexit... we're suffering from brexit big time."#bbclaurak #TrevorPhillips pic.twitter.com/vxVfBXunWI
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) June 16, 2024
He said analysis from Goldman Sachs showed Brexit meant the UK economy was growing 5% less since the vote in 2016.
Pressed on what he would like to hear from politicians, Cox said: “Well I just feel we talk about lack of cash, we talk about lack of money but I didn’t realise that real wage is expected to fall by 1.8%, a loss of £470 per worker a year and it seems to me that we are still suffering from that and we’ve not done anything about it.
“And so when we talk about other things, we can’t really talk in terms of where we are because we are suffering from Brexit.”
Scottish independence
Cox is a long-time supporter of Scottish independence and was asked about this along with the upcoming launch of the SNP manifesto.
Asked if he felt the SNP have “backed off” from independence, he replied: “They have backed off. I don’t know if Scotland’s backed off but I think it’s something that worries me because I think it’s something that worries me because I still believe in independence.
“I do believe in independence but I don’t believe we shouldn’t be part of these islands. I do believe we need a new kind of system.
“I don’t believe in a United Kingdom, I believe that we should have a sort of united federation of these islands.
“That each country should be independent but come together to support instead of things being dictated, as we find in Scotland, on our behalf that we have very little say in.
“The fact is we voted 62% to stay in Europe and we lost out completely so we had no voice there.”
