Lucy Powell says she thought ‘we’d gone past that sort of culture’, and that she regrets setting up Miliband interview with comedian in 2015

• Brand sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault

Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has criticised the “depressing” nature of the cross-examination of Russell Brand’s victims during his trial for rape and sexual assault, saying she believed the courts had “long gone past that sort of culture”.

Powell, now the education secretary, also said she regretted the meeting that the former party leader Ed Miliband had with Brand in 2015, when she was Labour’s campaign chief.