Ali Campbell has branded his estranged brother and bandmate Robin Campbell "a devious man"

Asked about the situation, Ali told i newspaper: "It's very sad.

"But I'm a man of principles. And I don't need them to promote reggae. I've been doing it successfully for 20 years with my new band."

Pressed on if it is difficult being estranged from family, he added: "Yeah, it is. But you know, my brother [Robin] is a devious man. So you know, what can you do?"

Asked if there is any chance of a reconciliation, he said: "Absolutely not, no."

Ali still performs under the name UB40, but so do Robin and his bandmates, and the 66-year-old singer insisted he isn't the one making the situation "confusing" for fans.

He said: "Well, they deliberately confuse everything. They still promote their shows with videos and stills of me. It's them that are confusing things."

The Red, Red Wine singer has been sued unsuccessfully for damages and rights infringements by the original UB40 but he doesn't care.

He admitted "Every time I put a show on, [management gets] a letter saying we're not the real UB40. But I'm long in the tooth now on that stuff, and I don't give a shit." Campbell released a statement last year saying no court has ever ordered him to stop using the name.

Both versions of UB40 are touring this summer but Ali can't understand why people would opt to see his rivals ahead of him.

He said: "I sang all the original hits, and wrote all the original melodies for all the hits.

"So, you either want the real deal or you want the tribute."

At the height of their fame, UB40, along with bands such as the Sex Pistols were under surveillance as a potential threat to national security, MI5 whistleblower David Shayler previously admitted.

Ali said: "We were watched and had our phones tapped and all that. We were considered subversive."

"We were aware. We could hear clicks on the phone. But we were flabbergasted that they actually admitted it."

And when UB40 became among the first to perform in the Soviet Union in 1986 as part of a culture swap with the Bolshoi Ballet, they also found themselves being monitored in Russia.

Ali recalled: "We were staying in the biggest hotel in the world in St Petersburg, and we got off at the wrong floor at one point, and it was a telephone exchange. It was just a floor of operators listening to all the rooms."