Do Retail Workers Know It's Christmas? Labour MPs record protest charity single

It’s Christmas time, and there’s plenty of reasons to be afraid if you’re a retail worker, according to a musical protest by Labour MPs.

MPs including Dan Jarvis, Angela Rayner and Mary Creagh have recorded a Christmas single to the tune of the 1980s Band Aid hit Do They Know It’s Christmas, accusing companies of cutting workers’ perks after the introduction of the “national living wage”.

Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh, who directed the chorus, said she wanted find a catchy way of drawing attention to the issue, which she said had seen firms cut overtime pay rates, free lunches and bonuses after the introduction of the national living wage which requires employers to pay staff over 25 at least £7.20 an hour.

“We know that they have plenty/ But still they give us less and less/ Stand up against the greed this Christmas time,” the MPs sing. The chorus of “Feed the World” is now “Keep the perks, don’t be Scrooge this Christmas time.”

The song is a trademark of the Band Aid Trust, which will receive all the profits from the single.

Several political songs are aiming to reach the charts this Christmas, with the chancellor Philip Hammond agreeing to waive VAT on sales of a Christmas single in memory of late Labour MP Jo Cox.

The special recording of the Rolling Stones’ hit You Can’t Always Get What You Want features cross-party MPs and musicians including Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, Cockney Rebel’s Steve Harley, KT Tunstall and David Gray. Money raised from the single will go to the Jo Cox Foundation which supports a range of charities, including the Royal Voluntary Service and the White Helmets.

A Jeremy Corbyn-themed Christmas song called JC4PM has also been recorded by Robb Johnson and the Corbynistas, with has a video featuring actor Maxine Peake.