Business secretary targets ticket touts in message laden with Taylor Swift puns

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has issued a message laden with Taylor Swift puns taking aim at ticket touts.

On Friday, Mr Reynolds announced the Department for Business and Trade would launch a consultation in the autumn on tackling touting, while referencing some of Swift’s famous hits, including Love Story and I Knew You Were Trouble.

It comes as the US pop star, 34, closes the European leg of her billion-pound Eras Tour with five nights at Wembley Stadium, the first of which took place on Thursday.

In a message posted on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Reynolds said: “Going to a gig should be a Love Story, not being ripped off by touts that we know All Too Well.

“So many are used to just having to Shake It Off and accept a Blank Space in our finances at the mercy of big profits for the touts.

“But this is our song. It’s time to be Fearless.

“This government will find a solution, and will do it in Style by introducing new consumer protections on ticket resales.

“If you’re seeing Red about ticket touts, now’s your chance to have your say.

“We’re launching a consultation in the autumn to find the best ways to tackle these problems.

“Working together with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, we’re going to put a stop to ticket touting to protect consumers, businesses and the artists and sports players who work so hard to keep us Enchanted beyond our wildest dreams.

“And my message for the touts, I Knew You Were Trouble. Now Look What You Made Me Do.”

Shape Of You singer Ed Sheeran made a surprise appearance during Swift’s Thursday gig and they performed Everything Has Changed and Thinking Out Loud to rapturous applause from the crowd.

Ahead of her first performance, the Metropolitan Police said they were “well prepared” after her Vienna shows were called off amid an alleged terror plot.

Swift had been touring to packed stadiums across the continent this spring and summer but her three shows at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium were called off last week after police uncovered an alleged plot by suspected terrorists.

Last month Swift paid tribute to victims of the Southport attack, in which three young girls were killed in a mass stabbing at a holiday club event themed on the singer.

Swift’s billion-dollar Eras Tour takes fans through her back catalogue, including hits from albums 1989, Red and Midnights.

She is being supported by rising star Holly Humberstone and US band Paramore for her Friday night gig.