Blair is urged to ban Gallaghers

Prime minister Tony Blair was tonight under pressure never to invite the Oasis brothers to No 10 again after their swearing tirade on BBC radio.

Britpop's bad boys Liam and Noel Gallagher have been severely criticised for their behaviour on Radio One's Evening Session on Thursday, when they advocated drugs and attacked 1960s legends including George Harrison and Mick Jagger.

Brian Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton South East, said he wished Noel Gallagher had never visited Downing Street, and hoped Tony Blair would not invite him in the future.

"I would have rather, frankly, that he didn't go but that's up to the Prime Minister who he invites to Downing Street," he told the BBC Radio Four programme The World at One.

A No 10 statement, issued to the programme, stressed: "The Government is not in the business of legitimising drugs. There is no association with Noel Gallagher's remarks." Mr Iddon also voiced his outrage at the behaviour of the brothers, saying: "I am very disappointed by the comments that are coming out from the Gallagher brothers about drugs.

However, the brothers both said today they had no regrets about their foul-mouthed outbursts which left Radio One bombarded with complaints.

On Thursday night's show, Liam said that if he was the mayor of London he would legalise drugs.

But the singer exploded this morning when he was asked to explain his radio comments.

The chart-topping singer chased two women journalists along a street near his north London home.

He kicked and thumped their car and bellowed obscenities and threats at the reporter and photographer from PA News.

He shouted: "I'm sick to death of you all. Just ****ing get out of here before I ****ing hit you."

When asked if had been upset with his interview on Radio One he said: "I don't give a ****. I really, really couldn't give a ****."

His brother Noel, speaking outside his home in London's Belsize Park, said: "I didn't swear. It was all my brother. You'd better talk to him."

Radio One said an inquest was under way today into Noel and Liam's bad language on the station.

Andy Parfitt, Radio One's deputy controller, was meeting presenter Steve Lamacq and his producer about what had happened.

A Radio One spokeswoman said: "We were expecting Noel to come in on his own.

"He's been on the Evening Session many times without using bad language, and he has given a very interesting interview.

"This is a band that are huge with our listeners, and the Evening Session's audience were very interested in what they might say."

But unpredictable Liam turned up with his brother, she said.

"The show had already started by the time they arrived and listeners were expecting the interview.

"Steve Lamacq and his producer made every effort behind the scenes to stop them from swearing.

"I think he did everything he could to try to calm things down, and eventually Liam decided to leave the studio."

Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn launched a vociferous attack on Oasis, calling them "a couple of loud-mouthed yobs" who are "as thick as two short planks". The Capital Gold Breakfast presenter said: "If I had been in Steve Lamacq's shoes, I would have faded them out as soon as they started mouthing off.

The BBC was also accused by a Tory MP of giving air time to "foul-mouthed self-publicists".

Roger Gale, chairman of the Conservative backbench media committee, and a former Radio One producer, said the corporation had acted irresponsibly.

"When a person has a reputation for behaving in ... an immature fashion, you don't bother to give them air time.

"It's not the BBC's or radio's job to give public air time to foul-mouthed self-publicists," he added.

He said the risk of a guest being deliberately offensive was ever-present on live radio, but it was up to the presenter and producer to remedy the situation.

He explained: "I would have said, `I'm terribly sorry but I can't submit our listeners to this' and gone into a record which Radio 1 can do at any time, and then I would have got them out of the studio."

He criticised decisions to interview guests on the strength of their capacity to shock, and he said the BBC should "make damned sure this never happens again". 1