An anti-Sir Keir Starmer song has hit number one in the Official Singles Downloads Chart, but the BBC has so far refused to play it.
Freezing This Christmas, which uses the melody of Mud’s 1974 festival hit Lonely This Christmas, lampoons Labour’s slashing of winter fuel payments for pensioners.
The track has surged to the top of the Official Singles Downloads Chart, but has still not enjoyed any air time on BBC radio stations.
The song was written by Chris Middleton, a marketer, under the mock band name Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers, and all proceeds from sales will go toward charities supporting the elderly.
The amateur songwriter said: “I would like them to play it, it’s in the Downloads Chart so people obviously want to hear it.”
The singer on the track, Dean Ager, a Rat Pack tribute crooner, has claimed that the BBC’s refusal to play the song is “giving them bad publicity for being so biased”.
He added: “I definitely would call on and urge the BBC to give proper airplay and stop denying the chance to raise money for charity and raise awareness.”
The song is a broadside against Labour’s winter fuel payment policy, featuring 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 track has been backed by the original Lonely This Christmas guitarist, who has raised concerns about the winter fuel payment cuts.
Rob Davis, one of the original members of the glam rock band Mud, has embraced the satirical track and said that government policy had left a lot of “broke” people in Britain.
The musician and songwriter, himself of pension age at 77, said of the winter fuel cut: “That’s not a good thing. I mean there are a lot of very broke people over here. It’s very hard.”
But Davis sympathised with the BBC for steering clear of the politically topical track, saying: “I can understand why they wouldn’t want to because it’s… they get done for a lot of things, don’t they, the BBC? So they’re probably being really careful.”
He also praised the arrangement for the parody, saying: “It’s a good version. The vocals sound the same as Les [Gray, the late singer of Mud].”
He added: “It’s a cool version.”
Freezing This Christmas currently sits at number one in the official chart, ahead of a version of perennial festival favourite White Christmas by V and Bing Crosby at number two.
The parody track is also fending off competition in the chart from the recently released APT by Rose and Bruno Mars.
The only air time the song has had so far is in a small chart round-up on Heart Radio, a channel run by the media company Global. Not every song in the chart is played each week.
The bookmakers William Hill have the song as second favourite to become Christmas number one, with chart positions to be announced on Friday.
Should the track reach top spot, the BBC may be forced to play it on its dedicated chart show – there is a longstanding convention that the broadcaster airs the festival chart-topper on the Friday before Christmas.
The broadcaster has faced pressure to play the song, with Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, saying it was “an absurdity” that the BBC “should not play a song that is selling so well”.
The BBC has ignored popular clamour for tracks in the past, notably in 2013, when Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead reached number two following an online campaign launched in the wake of the death of Margaret Thatcher.
The BBC refused to play the contentious track on its official charts show, and rejected a later complaint about the omission, saying that the song was “clearly a celebration of a death”.
The BBC said that its chart show on Radio 1 is 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.”
