Scotland’s health secretary, Neil Gray, has denied claims that he tried to buy coveted Oasis tickets during a panel discussion on Alzheimer’s disease at the Scottish National Party conference.
Gray blasted a report from the Sunday Mail claiming he was trying to score the hottest ticket in town at the meeting as “total nonsense.”
He insisted he was only cracking a joke at his party’s annual conference in Edinburgh and was actually “fully focused on chairing and contributing” to the meeting.
The Sunday Mail article reported that Gray looked up from his phone and said, “I’m in the queue to buy Oasis tickets … on multiple devices,” following a speech on advances in dementia care from University of Glasgow professor Terry Quinn.
“Hope is very important… that I get these tickets,” the health secretary said.
Then in reference to one of the British band’s hit songs, the health minister said he was “half a world away” during the session.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie called the alleged incident “shameful.”
“While [National Health Service] patients and staff wait for meaningful action from this government, they are met with distraction and incompetence,” Baillie railed.
Gray, the Scottish Parliament representative for Airdrie and Shotts, refuted the report on social media on Sunday.
“Just to confirm this is total nonsense. In intros to a fringe session I was chairing another panelist jokingly referred to Oasis tickets. I said like so many I was in the queue, but felt Half the World Away from getting any,” he tweeted on Sunday.
“I wasn’t trying to buy tickets in the meeting,” he continued. “I was fully focussed on chairing & contributing to what was an inspiring session on brain health research and how Scotland, by the experts’ own words, is leading the world.”
Gray said the panel discussion was “in depth, insightful and inspiring” and he took it seriously as he has dealt with Alzheimers and dementia in his own family.
When a X user asked Gray if he was ever able to snag Oasis tickets regardless, he responded “nope.”
Oasis is scheduled to play 17 gigs — its first shows for 15 years — in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin starting July 4, after the surprise reunion of brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.
More than 1 million tickets were put up for sale, at prices starting just under $100.