A spoof rap video about the Health Secretary sparked a row tonight when the head of a special school said he was tricked into letting the rapper on to his premises.
Andrew Lansley Rap features the performer Nxtgen calling the Health Secretary a “to**er”, punching an actor representing the minister in the face and soiling a copy of a White Paper.
The video has attracted more than 200,000 views on YouTube and entered the iTunes charts. It has become the anthem of the anti-cuts movement.
Filming took place at Ash Field School in Leicester, which has 110 disabled pupils. Some of their wheelchairs can be seen in the film.
David Bateson, the principal, said that a charity, The Big Difference, claimed it needed the building for a health project.
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“We are angry that our good nature has been presumed upon, and that our premises have been used for a purpose other than that which we were led to believe,” he said.
“We certainly do not wish to be associated with abusive language, or personal and political attacks on the Health Minister.
“We regret any embarrassment that may have been inadvertently caused to the local authority or to our children, parents and staff. We are looking for suitable redress.”
Leicester local authority said: “Schools should not be used for political purposes.”
The school had been told it would get a chance to see the completed video but this did not happen.
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Rob Halfon, a Conservative MP, said: “They have allegedly cynically exploited a school to produce this kind of rubbish. Heads should roll.”
Nxtgen is the stage name of Sean Donnelly, 22, a Loughborough refuse collector and aspiring grime musician, who says he was inspired by his girlfriend who is training to be an occupational therapist.
When Donnelly told Unison he wanted to turn his rap into a film, it introduced him to The Big Difference to find a location. The union sponsors the charity’s Leicester Comedy Festival.
Unison, which funded the video, has urged the public to download the song.
The Big Difference said: “There is no actual violence used in the video. Although some parts of the video are not very polite they are clearly humorous.”
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The charity denied misleading anyone: “The purpose of the video was to highlight the proposed healthcare reforms which are an important subject of public discussion.”
The rap lyrics have confounded critics who were perplexed at how Donnelly knew so much detail about policy.
Even the Health Secretary joined the praise, saying: “We will never privatise the NHS, but I’m impressed that he’s managed to get lyrics about GP commissioning into a rap.”
Now the secret can be told. In a first for hip-hop, the performer has sampled Wikipedia for his lyrics as well as sampling music for the backing track.
The Times texted Donnelly and put it to him that he lifted some of his song directly from the online encyclopaedia. He replied: “I used the internet to get facts! I then used my ‘talent’ to put it into a rap. :)”
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For example, Donnelly raps: “He’s been given cash by John Nash, chairman of Care UK: a private healthcare provider, who, if they have their way, will be the biggest beneficiaries of conservative Lib Dem policies to privatise healthcare...”
Wikipedia states: “Lansley was being bankrolled by John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, a private healthcare provider ... Such companies stand to be the biggest beneficiaries of Conservative policies to increase the use of private health providers.”
Other lines are clearly his own work including the chorus: “Andrew Lansley, greedy, Andrew Lansley, tosser, the NHS is not for sale you grey-haired manky codger.”