Alan Cumming purchases £3m Manhattan home

Cumming: denied his Yes vote. Picture: Robert PerryCumming: denied his Yes vote. Picture: Robert Perry
Cumming: denied his Yes vote. Picture: Robert Perry
Scottish actor Alan Cumming has reportedly spent almost £3 million on a four-storey townhouse in New York months after being told he was not eligible to vote in the independence referendum because his Edinburgh flat is not his main address.

The Hollywood actor bought an £80,000 property in the capital’s Polwarth area ahead of this year’s historic vote, saying he did not “want to miss the opportunity to make an independent Scotland a reality”.

But electoral officials told him he would not be able to vote Yes because he spends most of his time at his New York address.

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Cumming has reportedly opted for a property in New York’s trendy East Village. His new home is said to boast seven bedrooms, four bathrooms, a “forest-like garden”, balcony and a roof deck. He will be neighbours with, among others, Friends star David Schwimmer.

Last year, revealing that he would not be allowed take part in September’s referendum, the 48-year-old wrote on his blog: “At the beginning of this year I sold my flat in London and bought a home in Edinburgh. I wanted a base in Scotland again, I wanted to be nearer my mum.

“I had been registered to vote in London and now registered in Edinburgh. I looked forward to being able to vote in the independence referendum next year.

“Unfortunately I’ve since discovered that I can’t. Because my main residence is in New York and I will be working there on Broadway for most of next year I am ineligible to vote and have had to come off the electoral roll.”

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Estate agents describe his new flat as a “country house in the city on nicest east village. Exceptionally charming. Only one sale of property in seventy years”.

Cumming, originally from Aberfeldy, has been a high-profile supporter of Scottish independence. He appeared with First Minister Alex Salmond and a host of other A-listers when the Yes campaign was launched last May.

Cumming, who has appeared in films and TV shows including X-Men, Eyes Wide Shut and Taggart, hit out last year at critics. “Over the past month I have been accused of trying to buy a vote, as though I had no intention of ever using my flat in Edinburgh,” he said. “I am actually writing this from its living room.”

He added: “Whilst the No Campaign will be happy that I am not indeed able to vote in the referendum next year and they appear to have won by their media bashing of me, it is a Pyrrhic victory, for they have only spurred me to use the voice I have to reach out further and louder to express my views.”

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