UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that his Government will do “everything it can” to combat ticketing touting, after MP Kevin Brennan highlighted Eurovision tickets being listed on Viagogo for thousands of pounds.
During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday (Wednesday) Brennan highlighted a BBC Radio 4 show, ‘You and Yours’, which discussed the issue of tickets being sold for up to £7,000 (€7,900/$8,350) on resale site, Viagogo.
Brennan said that the programme had exposed queue-jumping online touts, who bought up Eurovision tickets before listing them for extortionate prices online.
With ticket touts charging more than £7,000 for #Eurovision2023 tickets on sites like Viagogo, isn’t this another example of rip-off Tory Britain?
In #PMQs I asked the Prime Minister why his government hasn’t done more to stop these rip-off merchants and facilitating websites 👇 pic.twitter.com/4Q0cIZ6HEy
— Kevin Brennan MP (@KevinBrennanMP) March 8, 2023
Ticket prices for Eurovision ranged from £30 to £380 for all nine shows, with tickets for the grand final selling out in 36 minutes.
In response the Prime Minister said: “We have put in place measures to combat ticket touting. I’m happy to look at the documentary that he mentioned to make sure that we’re doing everything we can…
“More generally it is a source of enormous pride for us to host Eurovision. I know it is something that everyone is looking forward to and we should ensure that there is as broad as possible access to seeing that and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that that happens.”
Speaking on Twitter after the session, MP Sharon Hodgson said: “Great to see my colleague raise the important issue of ticket abuse today at PMQs. It was interesting to hear the PM say he has put in place measures to combat ticketing touting… I’d be delighted to learn more about these measures but I’m not sure they exist.
“As Chair of the APPG [All-Party Parliamentary Group] on Ticket Abuse I have long campaigned for the rights of ordinary fans to be able to access events without having to face a minefield of fraudsters and crooks. We need legislation to help the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] stamp out bad actors and to make the secondary marketplace safe.”
Eurovision is set to be held at Liverpool’s 11,000-capacity M&S Bank Arena in May.