One of Scotland’s most celebrated rock bands, Deacon Blue, say they are “appalled” that one of their greatest hits is being used by Reform UK’s new Scottish leader to bolster his party’s “poisonous rhetoric”.
Malcolm Offord quoted at length on Monday from the group’s song Dignity at his first major speech since he was announced as Reform UK’s first Scottish leader, three months before a crucial Holyrood election in which the party is expected to win up to 18 seats.
Responding overnight from Perth, Australia, where the band are embarking on a two-week tour with songs from their new album, The Great Western Road, Deacon Blue told the Guardian: “Once a song is released into the world it can be sung, listened to and loved or hated by anyone; that is just the nature of releasing a song.
“However, it appals us to see the lyrics of any of our songs being used to bolster a campaign and ideology which is completely at odds with what the song, and we as a band, believe”.
Describing it as “one of my favourite songs”, the multimillionaire financier said the lyrics encapsulated his own journey from growing up in modest circumstances on the Clyde and admiring the yachts he “couldn’t afford to sail”, to making his money in the City of London and now being able to afford several yachts of his own.
Dignity – the first single from Deacon Blue’s critically acclaimed debut album Raintown – tells the story of a council worker who sweeps litter and dreams of saving up enough money to buy a dinghy.
The former Conservative peer told an audience of Reform supporters gathered at a country club near Glasgow on Monday that he loved the song “not just for the words and music but also for the message of working hard and saving up to make your dreams come true”.
According to most recent reports by the Daily Record, Offord owns at least two yachts, including an 11-mete (37ft) racer and another named Braveheart.
“I think these lyrics encapsulate the essence of Scotland,” Offord said. “I want everyone in Scotland to work, to save up their money, and to follow their dreams. To have dignity at home, in faith and in work.”
Deacon Blue, fronted by Ricky Ross, who was a vocal supporter of Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum campaign, added: “It has been deeply depressing to see the poisonous rhetoric of Reform take hold in Scotland”.
Touching on Offord’s comments on Monday in reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan that “we need to prioritise our own people over strangers”, the band said: “To see the demonising of desperate people with their anti-immigration policies, the talk of Scotland as a place for ‘our’ people and not strangers, goes against everything we believe in. Perhaps Malcolm Offord has overlooked another song from our first album. Loaded is sung at our gigs by the audience, too: ‘It’s just you laugh, ‘cause you’re loaded. And things are different from there’.”
The band added: “It goes without saying we hope Malcolm Offord and his party are roundly defeated by people all over the UK.”
Offord has been approached for comment.
