Russell Brand news LIVE: YouTube suspends star from making money on channel, while his Bipolarisation tour is suspended amid allegations of rape and sexual assault

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro moved to defend Russell Brand suggesting he has been targeted by mainstream media and dismissing allgeations to his six million followers.

He posted on Twitter: ‘Russell Brand, a person I consider a friend, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and abuse between 2006 to 2013 in a supposed ‘exposé’ from the Sunday Times in the U.K.

‘I didn’t know Russell during that time, but the media did. They knew that Russell Brand was not only promiscuous but incredibly vile in the sorts of things that he said publicly about sex and about women, and yet the media were championing him.

‘Ten years later, when Russell has fixed his life, he gets a full scale exposé about all of the allegations made by these women.’

The Met Police has received a report of an alleged sexual assault in 2003 amid media allegations about Russell Brand.

Officers did not name Brand, but said they were in contact with the woman and were giving her support, according to the BBC.

This week one of the women whose allegations against the star were part of the investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches told the BBC the comedian’s behaviour had been an ‘open secret’.

In a statement the Met said: ‘On Sunday, 17 September, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003.’

The force first spoke to the Sunday Times on Saturday, it said, and has now made more approaches to the newspaper and Channel 4 to ensure anyone who believes they are a victim of a sexual offence ‘no matter how long ago it was’ knows how to report it to the police.

The remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said they had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations about the comedian and actor.

Brand’s PR firm MBC PR and talent agent Tavistock Wood no longer advertise him as a client, and his publisher has suspended their relationship.

And Netflix has now been urged to remove his comedy special, Re:Birth, from its catalogue.

TV star Michael Barrymore has appeared to express support for Russell Brand who claimed his sexual assault allegations were part of a ‘coordinated attack’ to ‘control’ his voice.

He joins a group of public figures, including Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Laurence Fox, who all seem to have backed the comedian after he took to social media to ‘absolutely deny’ the ‘criminal allegations made against him’.

The accusations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse were first made against the 48-year-old on Saturday while the Met Police announced yesterday it was investigating a report of sexual assault that allegedly took place in Soho in 2003.

Re-sharing a video, where Brand insisted all relationships he had were consensual before calling the allegations a ‘coordinated media attack’, Barrymore said: ‘This is what they do…’

The 71-year-old’s Tweet of seeming support had been published before the allegations were made public.

Russell Brand was today accused of deliberately building an online cult to make him uncancellable and insulate the millions in income from his ‘wellness’ and conspiracy theory videos.

The comedian, actor and wellness guru has added 5million YouTube subscribers and seen his content viewed more than 1billion times since the launch of the Me Too movement in 2017, MailOnline can reveal.

Experts believe that by making five short videos a week, he will have been making £1million-a-year from YouTube via advertising without taking into account merchandising and sponsorships.

Today the streaming giant cut off his income by stopping him from being able to earn any money through his channel for ‘violating our Creator Responsibility policy’ – but he can still make films for his legion of fans.

Clips of Katy Perry and Sean Lock have resurfaced in light of allegations against Russell Brand.

Footage shows the moment US singer Perry was dumped by Brand by text message in 2011, following their 14 month marriage, the Telegraph reported.

Lock shared the reason he hated Brand in a clip from panel show 8 Out Of 10 Cats in 2014.

The late comedian said he had a ‘fear’ his daughters would bring home a man like Brand one day.

It comes as presenter Vanessa Feltz has also shared ‘deeply offensive’ video footage of Brand, which shows him asking to sleep with her and her daughters when she went on his chat shppw in 2006.

YouTube has stopped Russell Brand from being able to earn any money through his channel for ‘violating our Creator Responsibility policy’.

The 48-year-old produces around five videos a week for his 6.6million subscribers, earning him an estimated £1million a year.