Liz Truss has become the target of the wrath of the founder of M People for walking on stage for her Tory party conference speech to the band’s 1993 single, Moving On Up. Michael Pickering, who co-wrote the song and founded the group, expressed anger on Twitter before the Truss speech was even finished, tweeting: “No permission given for that we’re very angry.” He later added: “So apparently we can’t stop Truss walking out to our song, very weird! “So sad it got used by this shower of a government. BTW Truss labour used it with permission in 90’s. I don’t want my song being a soundtrack to lies.” The track had been personally selected by Truss, according to her press secretary, who was unable to say whether the party had asked the band for permission. “There was a range of options and she chose that one,” he said. When asked about Pickering’s criticism, the press secretary said: “I don’t know who he is.” Truss was also attacked by James Small-Edwards, a Labour councillor and son of M People’s singer, Heather Small. “An apt choice! This tired and out of touch Tory government is indeed moving on out,” he tweeted.
Pickering later said that the Tory leader should pay attention to the lyrics of Moving On Up. He told the PA Media: “I was just looking at the lyrics. It’s amazing. I hope she takes note. It’s about: ‘Go and pack your bags and get out.’” Asked why he thought the song had been used, he replied: “No one said to them: ‘Tony Blair and New Labour used that song all the time’ or, ‘Heather’s son is a Labour councillor’ or, ‘Mike is really vociferous on Twitter and social media about being an anti-Tory.’ “I don’t know why they have used it. They are so useless at everything. Who knows?” It’s not the first time that a Conservative leader has fallen foul of British musical icons. In 2010 Johnny Marr, a founding member and the lead guitarist of the Smiths, called on then prime minister, David Cameron, to stop saying that he liked the band. “Stop saying that you like the Smiths, no you don’t,” he wrote on Twitter, adding: “I forbid you to like it.” Cameron had made no secret of his love of the Mancunian group, picking This Charming Man – a track composed by Marr with the group’s lead singer, Morrissey – when he was a castaway on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Truss has also previously suggested that her own favourite tastes are rooted in the Thatcher decade. “Maybe one thing people don’t know about me is that I love 1980s music and I do love karaoke – so, as well as working hard, I like to enjoy music,” she told GB News, adding that her favourite song was Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody. In the US, multiple musicians ranging from Axel Rose to Neil Young have opposed the use of their music during rallies for Donald Trump.