A Sky News presenter cracked up laughing when a Labour minister used an Oasis lyric to criticise the Tories.
Trevor Phillips chuckled as Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell invoked an iconic song title in a dig at the former Conservative government’s handling of the public finances. The Labour MP warned “difficult decisions” would have to be made in the upcoming Budget as Labour have been left with an “appalling” inheritance.
In a reference to the music band, she continued: “To just take the example that you started off at the beginning of your programme with your Manchester music references. Don’t look back in anger. I’m afraid we do look back in anger at what the last government left to this government in the economic inheritance. And now we’re faced with some really challenging choices.”
Mr Phillips laughed and said “We will Oasis before the end of the interview if we may”, before moving the interview on. Later Ms Powell rejected a suggestion nationalise of Ticketmaster after Oasis tickets chaos.
Oasis this week announced a reunion tour, with all UK and Ireland dates selling out in less than a day. Fans aired their frustrations at being kicked off ticket selling websites and being quoted hiked prices for Noel and Liam Gallagher’s tour.
Some tickets also more than doubled in price from around £148 to about £355 on Ticketmaster after fans waited for hours to secure their place at the Oasis Live 25 shows. Tickets were soon also being relisted on ticket exchange and reselling websites Viagogo and Stubhub for thousands of pounds.
Following tickets chaos on Saturday, Labour MP Zarah Sultana posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, to demand: “Nationalise Ticketmaster.” Asked about the call, Ms Powell said: “I don’t think we need to nationalise Ticketmaster, but, yeah thankfully, after hours of waiting, like many, many other people in the queue, you know, I was able to get a couple of Oasis tickets, but, at a bit more than I was hoping to pay for them.”
She added to Times Radio: “We have a manifesto commitment to look at ticket touting and secondary ticket sales. We want to be on the side of fans and make sure that we take action. There’s going to be a big consultation beginning in the autumn. There are existing consumer rights in place around this sort of market pricing demand. But that has been standard practice across many sectors for a long time. And I’m afraid live entertainment now does cost a lot of money”.
In a statement issued on Saturday, a Government spokeswoman said: “Everyone deserves a fair chance to see their favourite artists live, that is why vendors are required by law to be transparent about their ticket prices. We want to go further to put fans back at the heart of music, and will bring in protections to stop people being ripped off by touts.”