Kanye West should be banned from entering UK to perform at Wireless, CAA says
By Sam Hall and Christopher McKeon, Press Association
The UK government should ban Kanye West from entering the UK to perform at Wireless Festival, the Campaign Against Antisemitism has said.
The rapper, who has been condemned for antisemitism, is set to top the bill for all three nights of the festival in London’s Finsbury Park in July.
Pepsi and Diageo withdrew their sponsorship of the festival after West was announced as the headline act.
The musician, who has not performed in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015, has drawn widespread criticism in recent years after he began voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler, and has made a series of antisemitic remarks.
Last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
West, also known as Ye, has been barred from X over antisemitism on multiple occasions.
Keir Starmer joined criticism of the music festival over the weekend, saying it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked to perform “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism”.
In a post on X, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) 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.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
The 48-year-old rapper’s scheduled appearance comes amid fears of growing antisemitism in the UK.
In March, four ambulances from a Jewish community-run service were set on fire in north-west London.
Two men and a 17-year-old boy were remanded in custody on Saturday after appearing in court accused of torching the vehicles.
In October last year, two men were killed in an attack on a Manchester synagogue.
Jewish community organisations have criticised the festival, with Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews calling it the “wrong decision” and called on the Government to consider barring him from entering the country.
In January, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to apologise, titled: “To Those I’ve Hurt.”
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” it said.
“I love Jewish people.”
In his letter, he said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.
Wireless Festival has been contacted for comment.
