Brand taunts Straw over son's drugs

Apr 7 2009

Disgraced comedian Russell Brand has used his Twitter webpage to mock Justice Secretary Jack Straw over his son's drug past.

Brand, who was pictured among the demonstrators at last week's G20 protests, wrote it was "no wonder" that Mr Straw's son took drugs when his father had "squandered £7 billion" sending British troops to Iraq while he was foreign secretary in 2003.

Mr Straw's son William was cautioned by police in 1997 after he was caught trying to sell cannabis to an undercover reporter.

Brand, 33, who quit the BBC last year after he and Jonathan Ross left a series of obscene messages on actor Andrew Sachs's answering machine, wrote the comments on his Twitter page, where he uses the nickname "rustyrockets".

"I demand Jack Straw pays the £7 billion he squandered on the Iraq war that we didn't want," he posted.

"No wonder his son has to toke himself to sleep."

Toke is a slang word often used to refer to smoking cannabis.

Brand also made light of the £150,000 fine imposed by Ofcom on the BBC for the prank calls scandal.

"What do 'Ofcom' do with all that money? What is their mandate? I think they spend it all on porn. As head of 'Ofporn' I fine them £150000. x," he wrote.