'I have antipathy for Britain's flag' says Steve Coogan as he brands Reform UK 'anti-human rights'
The Alan Partridge star said he has been granted an Irish passport, as he opened up about keeping “the establishment at arm’s length because of history”
Steve Coogan has revealed he has “antipathy” towards the British flag as he branded Reform UK “anti-human rights.”
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The Alan Partridge star said he has been granted an Irish passport, as he opened up about keeping “the establishment at arm’s length because of history.”
“I am a part of the Irish diaspora,” he said during a Q&A for his new film, Saipan, at Picturehouse Central in London.
“I’ve always felt that I have slight antipathy towards the British flag I’ve been raised with.
“It’s not like a contempt for it. It’s just holding the establishment at arm’s length because of history.
“I’ve always felt like I lived in the middle of the Irish Sea because I feel like I’ve been spending all my summers in Ireland. Even when I’d go over there, even though I was born in England, people would say: ‘When are you coming home?’”
He added: “I grew up during the Troubles, where there was this great suspicion of the Irish in Britain and that kind of huge endemic politics of colonisation and the Nationalist movement in Ireland, civil liberties, the whole thing. I was aware of it all.”
The comedian, 60, went on to joke that having an Irish passport could protect him from terrorists.
“I always think if I get captured by ISIS, I’m less likely to get my head chopped off with an Irish passport than a British one, which is my principal reason for getting one.”
Coogan recently gave his take on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK - and it’s safe to say he isn’t a fan.
He told Big Issue: “I am worried about the erosion of human rights and viewing the idea of human rights as some sort of impediment and how Reform are anti-human rights because they think it’s some red tape bureaucracy.”