Ross Kemp has called for the UK to follow Australia’s lead and make voting in elections mandatory.
The actor-turned-broadcaster made the comments while appearing on ‘BUILD’ to promote the current series of ‘Extreme World’.
Ross campaigned for the Labour Party in the run-up to May’s General Election and when asked what he would say to people who feel disillusioned by the outcome, he replied: “Be thankful that you have a vote. There are a lot of countries where [you don’t].”
He went on to highlight that many people do not get a say in who should govern their country and added: ”[In places] you vote according to your tribal elder for who your president is, you don’t really have a say. That’s not democracy.
“There’s so many countries that I travel to around the world where you have to vote in accordance with the leader of your tribe or the boss of the favela and if you don’t, you’re in trouble.
“People fought and died for your right to vote and your vote does count in this country and never take it for granted.
“If I had my way, like it is in Australia, I’d make it mandatory that everybody voted.”
The current series of ‘Extreme World’ is Ross’s last and he previously revealed the UK topic he’d love to tackle, after years of covering stories abroad.
“I’d like to look at knife crime right now,” he said. “I think it’s off the scale and it’s getting worse. From what I can see, there’s nothing being done.
“Partially, it doesn’t help the fact that 6,000 police officers have been taken off the streets. I’m not saying that’s the sole answer though, you have to look at [it] socially - why people are carrying knives? And also why is there such access to knives that are only designed to do one thing?”
Watch Ross’s full ‘BUILD’ interview below...