Michael Sheen on Starmer: ‘I don’t think he is going to change anything radically'
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You might know Michael Sheen from the movies, but the Welsh actor is politically vocal about the UK’s need for “radical change”.
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In brief…
- Michael Sheen, who stars in the upcoming Amazon series A Very Royal Scandal, tells The News Agents the UK needs a radical political change.
- The Welshman doubts Keir Starmer can deliver this and argues the whole system needs an overhaul.
- He discusses the rise of Reform UK in Wales and economic decline in his hometown of Port Talbot.
Read time: Three minutes
Michael Sheen says the UK needs 'radical change' in its politics
‘Our system has failed us’
Michael Sheen is fed up with the status quo.
In an exclusive interview on The News Agents, he said Keir Starmer doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.
“I don't think he's gonna change anything radically. And we need radical change.
“Our system has failed us, and yet the people who are saying ‘I'd like to lead this system, please, don't seem prepared to make the changes that need to happen”, he tells Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall.
Sheen stars as Prince Andrew in the upcoming three-part Amazon series A Very Royal Scandal. The News Agents’ very own Emily Maitlis is an executive producer.
He has also just finished playing Nye Bevan, the man who created the NHS, in a play called ‘Nye’.
So perhaps it's no surprise he references the NHS and “the kind of radical audacity of what that vision was and what it took to bring it about” when talking about what the country needs.
‘Whether it’s Corbyn or Truss, no one is allowed to do it’
The change Sheen longs for doesn’t lean into one particular political or ideological vision.
“It's not just the challenge of one particular political party or one country. It's the challenge for us as a civilization, as a species, to be able to reimagine how we live together”, he says.
He does point out that radical politics is not completely alien to the UK, with former political leaders Liz Truss and Jeremy Corbyn coming into the mainstream.
But Sheen says: “Whenever anyone comes anywhere near the levers of power who might make radical change, whether you agree with it or not, whether it's Corbyn or Truss or whoever, they're not allowed to do it.
“They're pushed out. So the system itself seems to resist radical change, and yet it seems to be crying out for radical change.”
‘Communities in Wales feel let down and betrayed’
Speaking about radical change, this is one thing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK claims to be offering.
The party didn’t perform too badly in Sheen’s home nation in the general election on 4 July.
But Labour have been in power in Wales for the entire century.
Sheen says: “I can see the resentment and the anger about [the fact that] we've got a Labor government in Wales, and yet there's still all these problems.”
He adds: “The danger is you've got these communities in Wales that feel very let down and betrayed, particularly around the migrant communities in South Wales.”
‘I was hit by a gut punch’
One community in Wales in particular, Port Talbot, is reeling after the closure of Tata Steel earlier this year. It triggered thousands of redundancies and sparked fears of major economic decline.
It also happened to be Sheen’s home town.
He told The News Agents: “I couldn't believe it the other day when the last ship came into Port Talbot to deliver the steelworks.
“Even though I've known this has been coming for a long time, I had to just go and have a little walk. I was hit by it, this gut punch.
“It's the closest I can come to what it must have been like when the mines were all shutting down and how it affects communities.”
Lewis Goodall covered the closure in a previous episode of The News Agents.
Listen to Michael Sheen’s full interview here.
