Rage Against The Machine take Christmas number one spot

Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name is the UK Christmas number one.

Rage Against The Machine have won the battle to hold the UK's Christmas number one spot.

The band saw off competition from X Factor winner Joe McElderry to top the charts with their single Killing In The Name.

An online campaign was launched to help the song, which was originally released in 1992, achieve the number one position and break the X Factor's almost-traditional hold on the Christmas charts.

Rage Against The Machine's track sold more than half a million copies, according to the Official Charts Company, compared to McElderry's 450,000.

Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company, commented: "Congratulations to Rage Against The Machine on their number one - as we have seen in recent years, overhauling any X Factor winner in the race for the Christmas number one is no mean achievement."

As well as being the Christmas number one, Killing In The Name has become the first song to achieve this through downloads only and has achieved the biggest one-week download sales in UK chart history.

Last week, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello told BBC 6 Music the campaign shows the "independent spirit" of British music lovers.