Scottish health secretary Neil Gray has denied claims that he was attempting to purchase Oasis tickets “on multiple devices” during a panel on dementia at the recent Scottish National Party (SNP) conference.

The SNP’s 90th Annual National Conference for 2024 took place 30 August-1 September at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

There, Gray chaired a panel discussion on Alzheimer’s disease during which, according to the Sunday Mail, he looked up from his mobile phone and commented: “I’m in the queue to buy Oasis tickets… on multiple devices.

“Hope is very important… that I get these tickets.”

The paper also claimed that he made a joke about being “Half the World Away” from buying the tickets – a reference to a famous Oasis track.

His full response on X read: “Just to confirm this is total nonsense. In intros to a fringe session I was chairing, another panellist jokingly referred to Oasis tickets. I said like so many I was in the queue, but felt ‘Half the World Away’ from getting any. People laughed [and] we went into the serious business.

“I wasn’t trying to buy tickets in the meeting. I was fully focussed on chairing [and] contributing to what was an inspiring session on brain health research and how Scotland, by the experts’ own words, is ‘leading the world’.

“The contributions from the audience and the panel were in-depth, insightful and inspiring. It was a pleasure being part of [it]. With family experience of Alzheimer’s and dementia, it is too important an issue for me to do anything otherwise.”

The newspaper stands by its claim, and even went so far as to cite past examples when the SNP has refuted the Mail‘s claims that then turned out to be true.