The BBC has been slammed as ‘so biased’ for its refusal to play an anti-Starmer Christmas song which has now hit No 1 downloads in the charts.
Freezing This Christmas is all about the government’s slashing of winter fuel payments for pensioners and the resultant ‘hardship’ inflicted on its victims.
The track, written by freelance marketer and writer Chris Middleton, uses the melody of Mud’s 1974 hit Lonely This Christmas and has been released under the mock band name Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers.
All revenue generated from sales will go towards charities supporting the elderly.
But despite this apparently kind gesture, the song has so far racked up a total of 0 minutes air time on BBC radio stations.
Mr Middleton said in response to the silence: ‘I would like them to play it – it’s in the downloads chart, so people obviously want to hear it.’
Dean Ager, the singer on the track, claimed the BBC’s refusal to play the song is ‘giving them bad publicity for being so biased’, and urged them to give it ‘proper airplay and stop denying the chance to raise money for charity and raise awareness’, the Telegraph reports.
The song features the lyrics: ‘It’ll be freezing this Christmas, without fuel at home, it’ll be freezing this Christmas, while Keir Starmer is warm. It’ll be cold, so cold, without fuel at home, this Christmas.’
The song mocks the decision to strip up to 10 million pensioners of the winter fuel payment based on new means-tested criteria
The track, written by freelance marketer and writer Chris Middleton, uses the melody of Mud’s 1974 hit Lonely This Christmas and has been released under the mock band name Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers
The song features the lyrics: ‘It’ll be freezing this Christmas, without fuel at home, it’ll be freezing this Christmas, while Keir Starmer is warm. It’ll be cold, so cold, without fuel at home, this Christmas’
An original member of Mud, Rob Davis, who is now 77, has even voiced his support for the record.
He said of winter fuel cuts: ‘That’s not a good thing. I mean, there are a lot of very broke people over here. It’s very hard.’
But Davis did suggest he understood why the BBC had steered clear of the political track, saying: ‘I can understand why they wouldn’t want to because … they get done for a lot of things, don’t they, the BBC? So they’re probably being really careful.’
He also said of the parody arrangement: ‘It’s a good version. The vocals sound the same as Les [Gray, the late singer of Mud]. It’s a cool version.’
Perhaps paralleling the production of previous charity Christmas songs, Freezing This Christmas was written quickly – reportedly in an hour – and has already raised £24,000.
The figure is not quite so much as the millions generated by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas but like many of those singing on the iconic 80s single, the men behind the new festive charity tune had not – and still have not – even met.
While 1.4million people have already watched the cover on YouTube, the only airtime the song has had so far on radio is via a small chart round-up on Heart Radio, a channel run by the media company Global.
But bookmaker William Hill has pegged the song as a second favourite to become Christmas No 1.
While 1.4million people have already watched the cover on YouTube, the only airtime the song has had so far on radio was via a small chart round-up on Heart Radio
Dean Ager – one of the men behind the scathing anti-Starmer Christmas number one contender that mocks Sir Keir Starmer’s winter fuel cuts
The official singles chart is announced each Friday with the Official Charts Company collating sales across paid downloads, streams, and physical purchases to arrive at the best-selling track each week.
William Hill has spoken of how the single is now actually ‘a serious contender to top the charts on Christmas Day’ and that a miracle next week is still on the table.
The company currently has Wham! at 1/16 odds to take pole position and Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers at 12/1.
Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, said it was ‘an absurdity’ that the corporation ‘should not play a song that is selling so well’.
In 2013 the BBC ignored pleas to play ‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead’ which reached No 2 following the death of Margaret Thatcher.
It said the song, originally from The Wizard of Oz, was ‘clearly a celebration of a death’.
But it has offered numerous slots to pro-Republican Northern Irish band Kneecap who have released songs like Get Your Brits Out and showcased people saying ‘f— Boris’ at Glastonbury in 2019 during Stormzy’s headline set.
There are no BBC policies preventing the corporation from airing protest or political songs and it has said decisions on what should be played are made on an ad-hoc basis.
Dean Ager, the singer on the track, claimed the BBC’s refusal to play the song is ‘giving them bad publicity for being so biased’
Dean Ager (pictured this evening performing at Bankers chip shop in Hove)
It comes as tens of thousands of elderly people could face a stark choice between heating and eating this Christmas after changes to the rules surrounding winter fuel payments introduced by Rachel Reeves.
The chancellor announced this summer that claims for the allowance, which is intended to help pensioners with energy bills and is worth up to £300, would be largely limited to people eligible for pension credit.
The change resulted in a surge of pension credit claims that has overwhelmed Whitehall, creating a pile-up of 91,075 unprocessed applications as of 18 November, according to Emma Reynolds, the pensions minister.
The BBC has said its chart show on Radio 1 was a ‘factual account of what the British public have been listening to’.
A spokesman added: ‘Decisions about which tracks we play are made on a case-by-case basis in line with what our audience expect to hear.’
