Michael Barrymore lends his support to Russell Brand who claimed sex assault allegations were a ‘coordinated attack’ and an ‘agenda to control his voice’

TV star Michael Barrymore has appeared to express support for Russell Brand who claimed his sexual assault allegations were part of a ‘coordinated attack’ to ‘control’ his voice.

He joins a group of public figures, including Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Laurence Fox, who all seem to have backed the comedian after he took to social media to ‘absolutely deny’ the ‘criminal allegations made against him’.

The accusations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse were first made against the 48-year-old on Saturday while the Met Police announced yesterday it was investigating a report of sexual assault that allegedly took place in Soho in 2003. 

Re-sharing a video, where Brand insisted all relationships he had were consensual before calling the allegations a ‘coordinated media attack’, Barrymore said: ‘This is what they do…’

The 71-year-old’s Tweet of seeming support had been published before the allegations were made public. 

It comes as all YouTube adverts on Brand’s channel, which has more than six million sponsors and makes him an estimated £1million a year, have been suspended. 

TV star Michael Barrymore (pictured on Good Morning Britain in 2020) has appeared to have expressed support for Russell Brand

Tweeting on Saturday morning, ahead of the allegations of sexual assault being made public, Barrymore shared Brand’s denial video, claiming ‘this is what they do’ 

The scandal has also seen Channel 4 and the BBC launch internal investigations into separate accusations of predatory behaviour by Brand towards staff and audience members when he was employed by the channels.

Brand’s PR firm MBC PR and talent agent Tavistock Wood also are no longer advertising him as a client.

Netflix has also been urged to remove Brand’s comedy special Re:Birth from its streaming site.  

The fallout follows a four-year investigation carried out by the Channel 4 Dispatches team and The Sunday Times, which documented the alleged harming of four women between 2006 and 2013.

Harrowing claims were made throughout the reports, including one woman alleging she was sexually assaulted by Brand while she was 16 and still attending school. 

Another claimed that she was raped against the wall of his home in Los Angeles in 2013. 

The Times and Channel 4 have since said more women have come forward with fresh claims about the comedian. 

The latest allegations have not yet been investigated but the newspaper said they would be ‘rigorously checked’. 

One accuser, Alice, alleges that Russell Brand sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old. She claims he would send a car to pick her up from secondary school, which she has since claimed was a ‘BBC car’

Elon Musk appeared to back Brand’s video, ahead of the report, taking to X to respond, telling the comedian ‘They don’t like competition’

Responding to the Tweet, tech mogul Elon Musk told Brand: ‘Of course. They don’t like competition’ 

Ahead of the explosive claims, Brand rushed to his YouTube and social media channels to share a video denying all allegations made.

Amidst his denial of the allegations the comedian and actor said ‘we have seen coordinated media attacks before’, referring to Joe Rogan announcing he had taken anti-parasite drug Ivermectin to treat his Covid-19 infection during the pandemic.

Brand said he was ‘aware of newspapers making phone calls’ and ‘sending letters’ to people he knows for ‘ages and ages’, claiming he feels that ‘there’s a serious and consorted agenda to control these kind of spaces’, referring to his YouTube channel.

It led to billionaire tech mogul Musk and self-proclaimed misogynist Tate rallying around the father-of-two, before the allegations came to light.

Tesla and X owner Musk responded to the video, claiming: ‘Of course. They don’t like competition.’

Meanwhile YouTuber Andrew Tate, who is facing charges of rape and human trafficking, responded to Brand’s video calling it a ‘Matrix attack’.

In a separate Tweet, Tate said ‘Welcome to the club Russell Brand’ accompanied by a cartoon meme of a knight preparing for battle, captioned: ‘On my way to fight the crazy b***h allegations’. 

As more details surrounding the shocking investigation emerged, including allegations that the BBC and Channel 4 knew of his ‘sinister’ behaviour towards women, Brand also seemed to garner support from actor Laurence Fox.

YouTuber and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate took to X yesterday to seemingly show his support for Brand 

Tate took to X, posting a cartoon meme of a knight preparing for battle, captioned: ‘On my way to fight the crazy b***h allegations’

In a separate Tweet responding to Brand’s video he called the allegations made against the comedian a ‘Matrix attack’

Actor Laurence Fox posted a video questioning the allegations made against Brand 

He posted a video questioning the allegations raised against Brand, The Telegraph reported.

Fox said: ‘It’s fascinating to see some parts of the legacy media talking about Russell Brand like we are going to believe anything they say about anything.

‘Whatever Russell Brand got up to, and I can guarantee it because I was around, everything he would have done, would have been sort of acceptable.

‘Because otherwise his producers would have called him out and fired him.

‘Now that may be an uncomfortable thing to deal with for people but that’s how the world was then.’

 His sister-in-law, model and TV star Kirsty Gallacher, initially appeared to be in support of Brand, who is married to her younger sister Laura.

She shared his video to her Instagram story with a huge red love heart – but just a few hours after the full investigation was published the post, which is scheduled to remain up for 24 hours, had disappeared.

Since the allegations came to light more women have come forward with claims.

A former model alleged that Brand stalked her through the streets in London demanding sex after they met in a bar, forcing her to run away from him in fear.

Brand performed on Saturday at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, hours after The Sunday Times published its first article about the allegations against him. He opened the show by saying there were ‘things I can’t talk about’ 

The comedian’s new stand-up tour has been postponed following the allegations

Russell, now 48, is currently facing allegations of sexual assaults and abusive and predatory behaviour between 2006 and 2013. Pictured: Russell Brand hosting Big Brother’s Little Brother in May 2006

Revealing the distressing incident that allegedly took place in 2005, the woman – who remains anonymous – claimed that Brand followed five paces behind her for what ‘felt like a lifetime’ and shouted to her: ‘Let’s just f*** right here.’

The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, said she met Brand at a bar in Primrose Hill in London. She told of how despite telling him not to leave with her, Brand followed her into the street and became ‘creepy’.

‘It felt like he was hunting me down. It wasn’t flirty or fun. The word “predator” is absolutely spot-on.

‘He was dead set on his goal. His intention was to have sex with someone, anyone,’ she told The Sun.

The woman, now in her 40s, said that since watching the documentary she ‘has not been able to sleep’, having realised ‘other women had not been so lucky’ as she was to get away from Brand. 

She is now preparing to speak to police, after the Met urged any alleged victims of Brand to come forward.

Ahead of the explosive claims, Brand rushed to his YouTube and social media channels to share a video denying all allegations made

Staff at Big Brother producer Endemol admitted last night that many feared Brand’s ‘predatory’ behaviour

Last night staff at Big Brother producer Endemol said many feared Brand’s ‘predatory’ behaviour during filming of the spin-off show Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

One senior executive even admitted that the title of the Dispatches documentary In Plain Sight fits the scandal perfectly. ‘We all knew he was a predator. There is no denying that he was involved in a lot of complicated sexual situations,’ they told The Times.

Another staff member said Brand’s behaviour appeared ‘seedy’ and the allegations of him ‘taking things too far’ were ‘unsurprising’. ‘He was a hot ticket back then. It was gross but it was all consensual as far as we knew,’ they said.

A third senior producer told the paper that it was common knowledge that Brand was having a relationship with a runner on the show. The pair were even caught engaging in sexual intercourse on the company’s premises.

Despite staff recognising his ‘abuse of power’ they admitted that at the time that no alarm bells were ringing as it was ‘just part of working with Russell’. 

Both the BBC and Channel 4 have launched internal investigations.

Following the scathing investigation Brand took to the stage in a Wembley theatre continuing his new live show, the Bipolarisation tour, where his fans were out in force, greeting him with applause.

But yesterday, promoters for the tour confirmed that the remaining dates in Windsor, Plymouth and Wolverhampton had been postponed.  

They said in a statement: ‘We are postponing these few remaining addiction charity fundraiser shows, we don’t like doing it – but we know you’ll understand.’