Succession star Brian Cox has said he had to put Scotland “first” by deciding to switch support from Labour to independence.
The Golden Globe winning actor, who stars as Logan Roy in the hit TV series, said that Scotland had “always been sidelined” as he appeared on The Andrew Marr Show with Labour leader Keir Starmer.
The Dundee-born actor recalled how he had voiced Labour election broadcasts in 1997, the year Tony Blair came to power in the UK.
He said: “I was the voice of Labour in 1997, I helped, I did all the ads and I gave myself to it.
“But at the end of the day Scotland is prime for me.”
Cox said the war in Iraq and the Brexit referendum, when 62 per cent of Scots voted for to stay in the European Union, had been factors in his move away from Labour.
Asked why his politics has changed, the actor said: “We really haven’t got enough time, it is a long story, and it comes really down to what I thought was a failure of social democracy."
“Also the Iraq war, that affected me, Blair’s hubris affected me. And I saw the party going in a certain direction and I was really very concerned.”
Cox insisted he was a “socialist” saying he agreed with Labour leader Keir Starmer on “many things”.
He added he was “devastated” by Labour’s losses in the north of England in the 2019 general election
But he said: “My country was traduced for long enough, time and time again. We voted 62 per cent to stay in Europe and we were ignored, and if you think about the Thatcher years we were ignored.
Cox continued: “I look at what happened in the north at the last election and I was devastated by that because I am a socialist, principally I am a socialist. But I have to put my country first because I looked at what has happened to my country and I am disgusted.
Starmer, who appeared on The Andrew Marr Show alongside Cox, accepted: “It is certainly true we have to do a lot of work in Scotland.”
The Labour leader added: “The most important thing is actually respect, and listening to Scotland has to be a central part of this.”
But Starmer insisted Labour would not do a deal with the SNP to help win power at Westminster.
He said: “There’s no basis of a deal before we go into an election, nor coming out of an election.”
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
