Mary backs clamp down on ticket touts

In advance of this year’s Leeds festival, Wakefield MP Mary Creagh is backing action to stop ticket touts ripping off the public.  Mary is backing Sharon Hodgson MP’s ‘ticket touting’ bill, which aims to make the resale of tickets at sky high prices illegal.

Last year, 5000 music fans buying tickets for the Leeds, Reading and V festivals were ripped off by fake websites where they paid an average of £80 a ticket.  Now Sharon and Mary are saying “enough is enough”.

The Bill which comes to Parliament in January 2011 would prevent anybody selling tickets greatly above face value.  This could encourage the growth of regulated ticket exchange websites where fans can swap or sell tickets to each other at face value, and ensure that everybody has an equal chance of getting to the gig or game of their dreams.

Mary Creagh, MP for Wakefield said: “Thousands of people going at the Leeds festival will have paid way over the odds for their tickets. Hundreds more will have the heartbreak of discovering they’ve been conned by heartless internet scams.  Going to a big gig or game should give people special memories, not empty bank accounts.

Local fans save up for months to see their heroes live.  I want to give them a fair shot at getting tickets by stopping people snapping them up and selling them on for a small fortune.”

Sharon Hodgson MP, who is sponsoring the Bill said: “This is about restoring fairness to our entertainment industry. There was a time when we all had to queue up at the Box Office to get tickets to see big bands or popular theatre shows. It didn’t matter how much money you had in your wallet, as long as you had enough to buy a ticket. I don’t think it is right or fair that the increase in online ticket sales has given a greedy few the chance to capitalise on the excitement and enthusiasm which these events generate by making themselves a quick buck. We don’t want to stop people from selling tickets at face value but we do want to stop this situation whereby if you have the money you can simply jump the queue at the last minute by using ‘premium’ ticket vendors without a thought for the person who wanted to buy the ticket months ago before they were all bought up. ”