‘He has socialism at heart’: Billy Bragg lauds his friend Albanese as right man for job

London: British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, who has been friends with Australia’s new prime minister for more than two decades, says his “old mate” Anthony Albanese is up to the task of creating a better and fairer Australia.

Bragg, whose hit songs include Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards, Sexuality and A New England, praised Australian Labor’s election win on Tuesday evening, saying its defeat of the conservative Liberal-National coalition had given “an uplift to many in Britain”, where he said Boris Johnson’s government also sought use wedge issues to rally support.

Veteran British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg says Anthony Albanese’s election win gives hope to left-wing movements around the world. Credit:Rick Clifford

The Australian prime minister quoted the left-wing activist’s song To Have and To Have Not when announcing his first ministry on Tuesday, while justifying the inclusion of recent NSW newcomer Kristy McBain ahead of more experienced women.

“[There’s] a Billy Bragg song, ‘Just because you’re going forward doesn’t mean I’m going backwards’. It’s a good song. And that’s true because other people are going forward isn’t a reflection on the capacity of others,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

The pair have known each other since the 1990s, where Albanese had helped organise several music gigs to rally support for the labour movement based on the Red Wedge music collective that formed to protest against Margaret Thatcher’s policies in the mid-1980s. The movement led by Bragg and the Jam’s Paul Weller also occasionally included Madness, Elvis Costello, Bananarama and The Smiths.

“I’m not surprised to hear that Anthony Albanese has quoted a line from one of my songs in his first press conference as prime minister of Australia,” Bragg wrote in a lengthy social media post.

“He and I first met at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney back in the late 1990s, and we immediately bonded over a shared love of music and a commitment to the politics of compassion. Over the years I’ve caught up with him on numerous Australian tours.”

The pair last met at the Fairgrounds Festival in Berry NSW in 2018, where the then opposition infrastructure spokesman hosted an hour-long discussion about pop and politics with the star.