The pop group behind Labour’s 1997 victory anthem Things Can Only Get Better has joined many other artists in requesting political parties refrain from using their songs. D:Ream said they would deny any request from Sir Keir Starmer to use the track in the upcoming general election. Which songs have politicians used in the past and is there anything musicians can practically do to prevent it beyond asking? Former prime minister Theresa May surprised Tory activists, close aides and even her husband, Philip, when she shimmied on stage for her Conservative party conference speech in 2018 to the tune of Abba’s Dancing Queen. However, in 2022, M People founder Mike Pickering said his band were “livid” that their song, Moving On Up, was used by Liz Truss on stage at the Conservative party conference. The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr banned former prime minister David Cameron from even liking the band’s music. He posted on social media in 2010: “David Cameron, stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don’t. I forbid you to like it.” In 2006, Gordon Brown claimed to be a fan of the Arctic Monkeys but was unable to name a single track from their debut album, merely saying: “They are very loud.” Marr has hit out at the use of songs by The Smiths – including Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want – at Donald Trump rallies. Marr was the latest in a string of musicians to blast the Republican presidential hopeful for using music without permission – there is even a Wikipedia page detailing all the artists opposed to Trump using their work. Ed Gillett argued in his book on the history of UK dance music, Party Lines, that something in Things Can Only Get Better’s message “clearly resonated with Labour apparatchiks, or tested well with the party’s army of focus groups” to be used as New Labour’s 1997 campaign song. Politicians usually do need to get permission. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders – the people who create music – in order to play or perform music in public. PPL is the UK’s music licensing company for more than 140,000 performers and recording rights holders and has been licensing the use of recorded music in the UK since 1934. However, under a clause prohibiting “derogatory use”, its licences excludes music “used as an introduction to, during or otherwise closely connected with the presentation of any political announcement, including keynote speeches during political party conferences and campaigns”. For election campaigns, PPL offers a tariff “for the public use of sound recordings solely as background music during an election campaign by a single candidate”. Applicants must provide written permission from the record companies involved before PPL will issue a public performance licence.