Prime minister Rishi Sunak has promised the UK Government will “make sure that we’re doing everything we can do” to tackle ticket touts after Eurovision tickets appeared on re-sale sites for as much as £9,000.

Labour MP Kevin Brennan raised the issue in Prime Minister’s Questions today, 8 March. He said a report by BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours had exposed “queue jumping online touts” that had purchased Eurovision tickets and put them on sale for thousands of pounds on “dodgy sites like Viagogo”.

“In this year when we are hosting Eurovision on behalf of war ravaged Ukraine, this latest example of rampant rip-off culture in Tory Britain is particularly despicable. Why isn’t his government doing more to support genuine fans over the spivs and ticket touts?” asked Brennan.

In response Sunak said, “I’m happy to look at the documentary and make sure that we’re doing everything we can do, and I’ll talk to the Home Secretary about it. But more generally, it is a source of enormous pride for us to host Eurovision. I know it’s something that everyone is looking forward to and we should ensure that there is a broad as possible access to seeing that. And we’ll do everything we can to make sure that that happens.”

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is to be staged in Liverpool at the city’s 11,000-capacity M&S Bank Arena on 9-13 May. For a behind scenes look at the venue’s facilities, see the second in the series of AAA Explores here.

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