Lily Allen has blasted Radiohead for their attitude to illegal downloading.

The “Smile” singer attacked the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) - whose members include the group’s guitarist Ed O’Brien - for not considering new artists when airing their views on file sharing. She wrote on her MySpace blog:

“I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead don’t seem to think so. The Featured Artists Coalition also says file sharing’s fine because it ‘means a new generation of fans for us.’ This is great if you’re a big artist at the back end of your career with loads of albums to flog to a new audience, but emerging artists don’t have this luxury. Basically the FAC is saying ‘we’re alright, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine,’ which is just so unfair to new acts trying to make it in the industry…I’m going to be writing to British artists, saying just this: File sharing’s not okay for British music. We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone - and definitely not helping British music.”

Lily’s comments came after members of the FAC - including Travis singer Fran Healy and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree - called for the government to abandon proposals to cut off the internet connections of people who illegally download music.