But he concedes he may have to do so from jail

Russell Brand has launched a campaign to be the next Mayor of London.

The former comedian announced his plan to stand at the 2028 election on the YouTube channel of  right-wing US commentator Tucker Carlson, saying he was campaigning as of ‘now’.

It comes despite him facing trial for three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault in London in October, as well as a charge of sexual assault in a civil case in New York.

Acknowledging that he would shortly be returning to the UK, 'possibly to serve a jail sentence', the 50-year-old confirmed that 'amidst all this madness, with a forthcoming trial and a book out that I'm very pleased with, I'm going to run for Mayor of London in 2028.’

That book – How To Become a Christian in Seven Days – is the first to be published by the former Fox News host's imprint Tucker Carlson Books, and was released yesterday.   

Despite setting out his political ambitions in the discursive 108-minute interview, the former stand-up claimed that he wanted to delegate responsibility for running the capital to the public, saying 'I would like to run for Mayor of London in 2028 so that the people of London would run it, so that politicians are not involved in politics. So we have true, open source, transparent democracy.'

Brand is also putting his faith in Polymarket, the cryptocurrency-based market prediction company at the centre of insider trading allegations linked to President Trump's timing of announcements on Iran, Gaza, Ukraine and Greenland.

As Chortle revealed in January, Brand made £4million in 2024, the year in which the Times newspapers and Channel 4 reported allegations four women made against him, which he has denied. 

Alongside Christianity-themed merchandise and diet supplements that he sells, he also carries adverts on his YouTube channel, which has more than 6.7million subscribers.

He said to Carlson: 'I bet you, like me, do Polymarket adverts. They seem to be advertising absolutely everywhere. That technology for polling and electing could be used to determine where you want, your local budget spent, who you want running a particular area of public life, if there is a requirement for any representation, and most importantly, you will be in control of your own lives.

'And we don't need to quarrel and squabble about Islam and Islamic invasion. If the people of Epping don't want to have migrants in their community, then let them vote on it. Now that's not an area that the London Mayor controls. But certainly, if the polling was available, it will be difficult to impose that on the people of Epping perhaps. If people in other communities are very pro-refugees, they would get a budget for and the ability to house refugees.'

He added that voters were disillusioned with traditional parties, saying: ‘What you want is for people to be absolutely empowered in their own lives. As our Lord suggests, each of us has direct access to divine truth and you can participate as much as you want to'.

Brand previously considered running for Mayor of London in 2014 on an independent, anti-politics platform – but now admits he was a 'fool' for believing 'I should be powerful. I made it about myself. I thought that I was fantastic and I got involved in [campaigning].’

And he claimed that 'from that moment I was on the radar of certain forces that probably monitor online threats and vocal critics of Establishment power.'

On the podcast he said the allegations he is facing led to him 'probably contemplating suicide'. And it had been those claims and his son's diagnosis with a heart condition, that led him to Christianity, he said, after 'I heard it as a voice'.

His ninth book, How To Become a Christian in Seven Days is described as a 'testimony and guide to a timeless, yet zeitgeist-capturing, grounded, yet psychedelic encounter with Christ’.

 Tucker Carlson Books is an imprint of Skyhorse, set up to give a ‘platform to things that would, in many cases, be shut down, be censored, and be covered over by propaganda', its president Tony Lyons has said.

Skyhorse's existing output includes Woody Allen's memoir Apropos of Nothing, US secretary of health and anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s The Real Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump's Time To Get Tough.

– by Jay Richardson

Published: 21 Apr 2026