Mike Read’s Ukip Calypso: BBC must decide whether to play it if it charts

Executives at BBC Radio 1 will decide whether to play Mike Read’s Ukip-supporting calypso if it makes the top 40 singles chart on Sunday.

The song, Ukip Calypso, performed by Read and the Independents, was number 21 in the official midweek charts and was still on sale on Amazon on Thursday despite Read’s call for it to be withdrawn.

Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, has called on his supporters to help make the song No 1. Radio 1 executives will want to avoid a repeat of the controversy around Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead, the Wizard of Oz song, which became the focus of an anti-Thatcher campaign and reached No 2 in the charts in April last year.

Radio 1 sought to defuse the row, following an intervention by the director general, Tony Hall, by playing a seven-second clip of the tune from the 1939 Judy Garland film alongside a report by Radio 1 music reporter Sinead Garvan setting out the context.

Read apologised on Wednesday for “unintentionally causing offence” with his song, sung in a fake Caribbean accent and featuring lyrics about “open borders” and “illegal immigrants in every town” after criticism that it was racist.

Excerpts of the song have been played on BBC news programmes, including Radio 1’s Newsbeat, but a full-length broadcast in Sunday’s chart, presented by Jameela Jamil, would be contentious.

A Radio 1 spokesman said: “The song is not currently on our playlist and, as the chart is compiled at the end of the week, we cannot say what will be in the Official Chart on Sunday.”

Read, a former Radio 1 breakfast DJ who presents a weekday afternoon show on BBC Radio Berkshire, said on Wednesday that he had “asked the record company to withdraw the single immediately”.

However, the song was still available to download at the time of publication.

Read’s record label, Angel Air, declined to comment, passing all press inquiries to the Ukip press office, where a spokeswoman said the intention was to remove the single from sale “but it can take a couple of days to do that”.

The BBC said Read had not breached editorial guidelines on impartiality, despite the song’s clear links with Ukip, because he was not a news or current affairs presenter.

Strict guidelines were introduced more than a decade ago on what editors and presenters could say in newspaper columns following controversies including the then Today editor Rod Liddle, who had to resign after he attacked the Countryside Alliance in the Guardian.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “As well as working for commercial radio, Mike Read presents a light entertainment show on BBC Radio Berkshire.

“He does not present news or current affairs programmes on the BBC and is therefore not in breach of the editorial guidelines on impartiality.”

However, section 4.4.31 of the BBC’s editorial guidelines states: “BBC staff and regular BBC presenters or reporters associated with news or public policy-related output may offer professional judgments rooted in evidence.

“However, it is not normally appropriate for them to present or write personal view programmes and content on public policy, on matters of political or industrial controversy, or on ‘controversial subjects’ in any area.”

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