Russell Brand is urging voters support Labour - after once telling people not to vote at all.

There was speculation the comedian-turned-activist would back the party after he interviewed its leader, Ed Miliband, on his YouTube show The Trews last week.

And today he has announced on the show: "David Cameron may think I'm a joke, but I don't think there's anything funny about what the Conservatives are doing to this country and we have to stop them.

"So my view is this: if you are Scottish, you don't need an Englishman telling you what you are going to be doing.

"If you're in Brighton, I think it would be a travesty if we lost the voice of Caroline Lucas in Westminster.

"But anywhere else, you've got to vote Labour, you've got to get the Conservative Party out of government in this country."

Brand said of Mr Miliband: "What's important is this bloke will be in Parliament and I think this bloke will listen to us, so on 7 May, vote Labour."

After it emerged that Brand had interviewed the Labour leader, Prime Minister David Cameron responded by saying he didn't "have time to hang out with Russell Brand."

"He (Brand) says don't vote, that's his whole view, don't vote, it would only encourage them or something," Mr Cameron said last week.

"That's funny, it's funny. But politics and life and elections and jobs and the economy is not a joke.

"Russell Brand's a joke. Ed Miliband, to hang out with Russell Brand, he's a joke."

Brand has long preached about the futility of voting, saying the political system must change because it has created a "disenfranchised, disillusioned under class."