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Friendly Fires condemn PM after he walks out to their song for keynote speech

Watch: Conservative conference 2021: Friendly Fires hit out at Tories for using their song at Boris Johnson speech

Indie band Friendly Fires have hit out at Boris Johnson after he walked out to one of their songs for his speech at the Conservative party conference.

The Prime Minister made his way to the stage against the backdrop of their track Blue Cassette ahead of his keynote speech in Manchester.

However, the band have said they did not give their permission for him to use the song at the event and said they are taking steps to make sure it does not happen again.

Friendly Fires tweeted: “We do not endorse the Conservative party’s use of our track ‘Blue Cassette’.

“Our permission was not sought, and we have asked our management to make sure it isn’t used again.

“If we’d have intended them to use it, we’d have named the track ‘Blue Bunch Of Corrupt Wankers’.”

London iTunes Festival – Friendly Fires
Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires (Matthew Baker/PA)

Alongside a screenshot of a news report stating that Jacob Rees-Mogg had called food banks “rather uplifting”, the band added: “If Boris Johnson needed something uplifting to walk on to, perhaps he should have used the sound of a busy food bank.”

Mr Johnson used his conference speech to call for the unleashing of the “unique spirit” of the country as he set out the “difficult” process of reshaping the British economy.

In addition to Blue Cassette, Electric Light Orchestra song Mr Blue Sky was also played prior to Mr Johnson’s conference speech.