Brian Cox rails against Brexit and Nigel Farage on BBC politics programme

Brian Cox shared his unfiltered views about the effects of Brexit and the impact of Nigel Farage ahead of the General Election.

The Succession star was a guest on BBC One politics programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning (16 June).

Sitting alongside Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and former Tory MP Nadine Dorries, the Dundee-born actor shared his opinions about a range of political topics, including Scottish independence, his “fears” about the Conservative Party and Nigel Farage.

One of Cox’s main focal points was about Brexit’s effect on the UK economy. He said: “My main thing is that there’s still the demon that we don’t talk about, which is Brexit, and why we are so broke.”

The Emmy Award-winning actor then shared various figures about the cost of Brexit, including a February report that claimed Brexit is costing £100bn a year in UK exports.

“Analysis from Goldman Sachs found that Brexit is directly responsible for the UK economy growing 5 per cent less since the vote in 2016,” Cox added.

In response, Kuenssberg noted that the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war are additional factors that “make it very difficult to pull out actual strong conclusions”.

She then asked Cox about what he’d like politicians to acknowledge more during the campaign process.

“We talk about lack of cash, we talk about lack of money. But I didn’t realise that real wages are expected to fall by 1.8 per cent, and that’s £470 per worker per year,” he claimed.

“It seems to me that we are still suffering from that, and we’ve not done anything about it. So when we talk about other things, we can’t really talk in terms of where we are, because we are suffering from Brexit.”

Cox also turned his attention to the Reform party leader and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, stating that he “worries” about the Conservatives due to Farage’s appeal to their potential voters.

“Nigel Farage is not doing any good at all,” Cox said.

“I mean he’s 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.”

He added: “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.”

Cox is no stranger to sharing his political views, and previously criticised former Prime Minister Liz Truss during a 2022 edition of Question Time.

You can keep up with The Independent’s coverage of the General Election here.