BBC fudge 'hands victory to Trots': Chart show will 'only play five seconds of Ding Dong The Witch is Dead' as row over Thatcher protest single escalates

• Song has now sold 20,000 copies since Thatcher's death on Monday
• It has been pushed up the charts due to an internet campaign
• BBC confirms it will play it on Radio 1 this Sunday - but a shorter version
• Director General Tony Hall: 'I do believe it would be wrong to ban the song outright as free speech is an important principle'
• The track, which costs 79p online, is currently No1 on iTunes

By Paul Revoir for MailOnline and Daniel Martin for the Daily Mail and Tim Shipman

Published: 10:25 EDT, 11 April 2013 | Updated: 21:09 EDT, 12 April 2013

BBC bosses were accused of a ‘cop out’ last night when, hours after attacking the campaign to get Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead to number one, they decided to play it anyway.

The corporation confirmed it would play a ‘brief excerpt’ of the song during tomorrow’s chart show, prompting claims the broadcaster is being ‘manipulated by anarchists’.

The decision means that, less than a week after the death of Baroness Thatcher, Britain’s greatest peacetime prime minister, the words ‘the witch is dead’ may be broadcast on Radio 1.

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Climbing up the charts: The Wizard Of Oz track which has had a surge of popularity in the wake of Baroness Thatcher's death is on course for a place in the top five

Online push: A message running on the Facebook group which has been set up to push the song in this week's chart

Allies of Lady Thatcher branded the plans ‘utterly disrespectful’, and claimed they had handed a propaganda victory to left-wing agitators who have propelled the song, from The Wizard Of Oz, towards the top of the charts.

Tory MPs branded the decision to play ‘up to five seconds’ of the song a ‘cop out’ by the new BBC director general Lord Hall and BBC executives.

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead reached number three in the official chart yesterday and last night required only 5,000 more sales to take second place. It was already number one in the iTunes chart.

After hours of private talks, the BBC said the Radio 1 chart show would contain a ‘news item’ explaining why the song was in the charts and that a short clip of the song would be played.

Facing the first crisis of his leadership, Lord Hall issued a statement saying he did not believe the song should be banned. He said: ‘I understand the concerns about this campaign. I personally believe it is distasteful and inappropriate.

The BBC will nplay the 1939 tune during Radio 1's top 40 countdown, hosted by Jameela Jamil, left.  It is still some distance behind the week’s biggest selling single, Need U (100%) by Duke Dumont , right, FT A*M*E

Place in the charts: The song is the shortest top 10 single ever, with the most popular version running to 51 seconds

‘However I do believe it would be wrong to ban the song outright as free speech is an important principle and a ban would only give it more publicity.’

Lord Hall held a series of conversations with Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper and director of radio Graham Ellis about how to deal with the growing storm. But Mr Cooper told Radio 4’s PM programme that it had been his decision to air the clip, not Lord Hall’s.

POWER OF FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

The power of a Facebook campaign should not be underestimated.

In 2009 a Facebook campaign was designed to prevent another X Factor number one.

As a consequence Rock band Rage Against the Machine won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one.

The band's single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry's The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.

In a blog posted on the BBC’s website, Mr Cooper wrote: ‘I find the campaign to promote the song in response to the death of Baroness Thatcher as distasteful as anyone.’ He acknowledged there was ‘understandable anger’ from people who were ‘appalled by this campaign’.

But he said the chart show could not ‘ignore a high new entry which clearly reflects the views of a big enough portion of the record-buying public to propel it up the charts’.

Mr Cooper added: ‘To ban the record from our airwaves completely would risk giving the campaign the oxygen of further publicity and might inflame an already delicate situation.’

The BBC would not confirm exactly what part of the song would be aired tomorrow, but most of the lyrics contain the offensive phrase.

Mr Cooper said the station was ‘still making a decision’ on whether to include the actual words in the clip it chooses.

But the BBC’s explanation did not satisfy many Tory MPs.

Thatcherite former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth told the Mail: ‘A lot of people will feel this decision is a cop-out. The BBC used to have a charter requiring it to observe taste and decency. The director general himself has said this song is tasteless. Do they not now believe in taste and decency?

‘It is utterly disrespectful to play this song when Margaret Thatcher put her life on the line for her country and came within inches of death at Brighton in 1984.

‘Playing this song, even a part of it, will play into the hands of the politically-inspired campaign by Trots and the Socialist Worker Party who have never forgiven Margaret Thatcher for destroying socialism.’

New director general Tony Hall defended playing the clip, saying: 'I do believe it would be wrong to ban the song outright as free speech is an important principle and a ban would only give it more publicity'

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell added: ‘We have broadcasting rules which prevent the playing of songs which project hatred.

‘This song is being used to project hatred at a time of national mourning – it’s the same thing.’

Philip Davies, a Conservative member of the Commons culture select committee, had argued for the whole song to be played.

But he contrasted the ‘typical BBC fudge’ with Lady Thatcher’s leadership style. ‘It’s definitely true that Mrs Thatcher would never have fudged a decision in the way the BBC has, which is probably why she didn’t have a great deal of time for the BBC.’

Tory MP Mark Pritchard said: ‘I am surprised they are prepared to be manipulated so readily by the agenda of anarchists and the hard left.’

But even before the decision on the chart show was reached yesterday, Radio 2 had already broadcast a 15-second clip of the song during a discussion on the Jeremy Vine Show, presented by Jane Garvey.

A spokesman for Radio 2 said: ‘In order to fully illustrate the subject for listeners a short clip of the song was played as part of a reasoned debate around the topic.’

But former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, an admirer of Lady Thatcher, said the BBC should play the song – because the former Prime Minister was  ‘tough enough’ not to have cared.

VIDEO Social media campaigner backing the song's rise up the charts defends his project