Government minister reveals she forked out double the quoted price for Oasis tickets

Manchester Central MP and government minister Lucy Powell has revealed she forked out more than double the original quoted price for Oasis tickets.

Fans have hit out after standard tickets more than doubling from £148 to £355 on Ticketmaster. When asked about this issue by the PA news agency, the ticket selling giant said it does not set prices, and shared a link to its website where it says costs can be 'fixed or market-based'.

Lots of fans also missed out on the reunion tour tickets as they battled with website issues, and being mislabelled as bots, before Oasis announced all 17 shows had sold out. However, Ticketmaster maintained its website had not crashed, and directed customers to clear cookies, and to only use on tab.

READ MORE: 'Organised criminal gangs' blamed for 'hugely inflated prices' after Oasis ticket chaos

An explanation by the website about the 'in-demand standing ticket' price says: "The event organiser has priced these tickets according to their market value."

House of Commons leader and Lord President of the Council Lucy Powell said she ended up buying two tickets for £350 each for Heaton Park in July, which were originally quoted at £148.50, not including a booking fee of £2.75.

The Manchester Central MP told BBC Radio 5 Live: "Eventually (I) got through and bought a couple of tickets for more than I was expecting to pay."

Ms Powell said she does not "particularly like" surge pricing, before adding: "It is the market and how it operates." She went on: "You've absolutely got to be transparent about that so that when people arrive after hours of waiting, they understand that the ticket is going to cost more."

Explaining the rationalisation of this type of approach, Jonathan Brown, chief executive of