A Cabinet minister has said Kanye West should not perform at Wireless music festival in London.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said his past comments “are completely unacceptable and absolutely disgusting”. West, who has previously been criticised over his antisemitic remarks, is scheduled to headline for all three nights of the festival in July.
Ms Phillipson said: “The comments that he has made in the past are completely unacceptable and absolutely disgusting. I don’t think he should be performing at the music festival, but I can’t comment on specific individual cases that will be considered in line with immigration rules. But there is no place for that kind of hatred, bigotry or antisemitism from him or from anyone else.”
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Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
The Tory Party has called on the government to stop him from being granted a visa because “allowing someone with his track record to headline a major public event sends entirely the wrong message”.
West, also known as ye, has faced widespread condemnation in recent years after he began expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler, and has made a string of antisemitic comments. Last year, he released a track called “Heil Hitler”, just months after promoting a Swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
Over the weekend, Keir Starmer said: “It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.
“Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.”
And the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The Prime Minister is right to be deeply concerned that Wireless Festival wants to headline someone whose anti-Jewish bigotry has gone as far as recording a track titled ‘Heil Hitler’ less than a year ago.
“But the Prime Minister is not a bystander. The Government can ban anyone from entering the UK who is not a citizen and whose presence would ‘not be conducive to the public good’ – Surely this is a clear case.”
Labour MP Rachael Maskell said West should be banned from entering the UK over his previous antisemitic comments. The MP for York Central told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We cannot allow these performers to have a platform, and that’s why it’s absolutely right that the Prime Minister has said that that festival, the Wireless festival, should cancel that performer.
“But also he should not be allowed to come to our country to perform in the light of the antisemitic comments that he has made and recorded.”
This weekend it was announced that Pepsi and Diageo have withdrawn their sponsorship of the event after West was announced as the headline act. West has been barred from X over antisemitism on multiple occasions but has now been allowed back on the platform.
Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asking her “to use her powers to ban West from travelling to the UK to appear at the Wireless concert”. Speaking about West’s behaviour, he said: “This is not a one-off lapse, but a pattern of behaviour that has caused real offence and distress to Jewish communities…
“At a time when antisemitism is rising in the UK, allowing someone with this track record to headline a major public event sends entirely the wrong message.”
It comes after four Jewish community ambulances run by Jewish charity Hatzola were destroyed last month in Golders Green, north London.