THE songwriter behind a viral song panning Keir Starmer for the cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment has said it will be “almost impossible” to be Christmas number one because “a lot of the media are trying to avoid us”.
Chris Middleton spoke to The National after his parody song “Freezing this Christmas” – which uses the tune of Mud’s classic Lonely this Christmas – was named the top song on Global’s Official Big Top 40 chart, which was updated on Sunday.
The success saw him in talks to appear on a major UK current affairs show – but that fell through as producers “couldn't get clearance for it, whatever that means”, Middleton said.
Asked if the parody band name – Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers – might have something to do with it, Middleton said: “Maybe looking at it now, I should have chosen a different name, but I didn't really think it would get to this point.”
The song is currently 67th on the Official Chart list – a separate ranking to Global’s which is updated on Friday. It is this chart which the BBC will count down on December 20 before revealing the official Christmas number one.
Asked if that was his goal, Middleton said: “I think number one would be almost impossible at this point because I think a lot of the media are trying to avoid us. Obviously, the political nature of it, they kind of don't want to touch it.
“So, unfortunately, I don't think it can go to number one. Without those really big media appearances, it's almost impossible.
“But I definitely think we can get in the top 40 and hopefully as high up as possible. The higher it can go, the more awareness we can raise, the more money we can raise.
“Hopefully, it will all feed into the public consciousness about this issue and keep it alive and keep the conversation going – and hopefully get them to change their mind.”
Middleton said that he had penned the lyrics after seeing the outcry against the Labour Government’s cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment, which they ended as a universal benefit soon after taking power.
However, he said his concern was not so much about the policy, but how Labour did it.
“The whole point of my campaign at the start was that the threshold should be raised, not really necessarily that all pensioners should get it,” Middleton said.
“My main concern was the poorest pensioners, the sort of 4000 that Labour said would die as a result of the policy, and the maybe one million who are just within £500 of the threshold. They're the ones that are going to be hurt the most by this.”
Charities and campaigners had raised similar concerns about the number of people living just above the pension credit threshold, with Jan Shortt, the general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), warning they were already “penalised and struggle on a daily basis”.
In 2017, under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour published analysis which argued that cutting the Winter Fuel Payment would lead to 3850 excess deaths that winter. Starmer was in the shadow cabinet at the time.
Middleton said the cuts had been a “massive, massive own goal from Labour”.
“I think if they'd have just put the threshold at say £25,000, or let's say whatever minimum wage is, if they put the threshold at that, I think no one would have any issues with it really, and they would prevent all these deaths.
“By putting it so low, they've really just pissed everyone off. It's a massive own goal on their part. All of this could have been avoided.”
Middleton, a freelance copywriter based in Newcastle, said he was used to living a “very quiet life” – but was speaking in public due to the huge support for his parody song.
“This isn't really the kind of thing that I do,” he said. “But once I'd had so many messages from people thanking me and giving me their support, I really just felt like I owed it to them to push it as much as I could while the opportunity is there”.
Middleton said there was a fundraiser on JustGiving which had raised more than £15,000 for Age UK, while any other funds would be divided between smaller charities.
“In terms of the actual money from the song, I've got no idea at all how it works,” he said. “I don't even know how much the platforms take or do I have to pay tax on it?
“I've got absolutely no idea. I need to sort all that out – but all of that money will be going to charity once it's been sorted.
“At some point afterwards, I'll make a YouTube video or something going through everything, showing everyone how much we've made and then, obviously, showing that it's been donated to charity.”
You can find the JustGiving page here.
