UK minister says Kanye West should not perform at Wireless festival

Bridget Phillipson adds to growing criticism of booking of rapper after his past antisemitic remarks

A senior UK government minister has said Kanye West should be barred from performing at Wireless festival because of his “completely unacceptable and absolutely disgusting” antisemitic remarks.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said she could not comment on whether ministers should heed calls to ban West from entering the country, but said there was “no place for that kind of hatred, bigotry or antisemitism”.

Other MPs and Jewish organisations have urged the government to ban the rapper from the country, raising doubts about whether the music festival in London’s Finsbury Park in July will go ahead.

Although West has not made any immediate plans to travel to the UK, it is understood that ministers are reviewing his permission to enter the country.

Keir Starmer joined criticism of the festival at 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 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.”

On Monday the Tory MP Chris Philp wrote to Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, to ask her to prevent West from travelling to the UK.

Pepsi and Diageo have withdrawn their sponsorship of the festival in response to West being announced as the headline act for all three nights, although the brands remain prominently displayed as sponsors on Wireless festival’s website.

PayPal, which is a payment partner for the annual hip-hop festival, will not appear in any of its future promotional materials.

West, who also goes by the name Ye, has not performed in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015. He has been criticised for making antisemitic remarks including voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.

The musician has been barred from X on multiple occasions for antisemitism.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has also called on the government to ban West from entering the UK, saying: “We need to get tougher on antisemitism.”

The Labour MP Rachael Maskell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that West should not be given a platform and should be banned from the country.

Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said allowing West to play at Wireless was the “wrong decision” and urged the government to consider barring him from the UK. The booking has also been condemned by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust.

In January, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal titled “To those I’ve hurt”, which stated: “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”

In his letter, he said his bipolar disorder had led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.

There have been fears of growing antisemitism in the UK. In March, four ambulances from a Jewish community-run service were set on fire in Golders Green, north-west London, while in October last year two men were killed in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

The Home Office and Wireless festival have been approached for comment.