Campaign Against Antisemitism calls for Kanye West to be banned from entering UK ahead of festival performance
Campaign group calls on the Government to take action as the rapper set to headline all three days of festival
Kanye West is facing calls to be banned from entering the UK to perform at London’s Wireless festival in Finsbury Park this July.
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The rapper, widely condemned for his antisemitism, is set to top the bill for the three days of the festival.
The move saw Pepsi and Diageo withdrawing their sponsorship of the festival, but the brands remain prominently displayed as sponsors on Wireless Festival’s official website.
PayPal, which is a payment partner for the annual rap and hip-hop festival, will not appear in any of its future promotional materials, it is understood.
West, who has not performed in the UK since headlining Glastonbury in 2015, has in recent years faced criticism for antisemitism.
Read more: Drinks giants Pepsi and Diageo withdraw as sponsors of UK festival amid Kanye West backlash
He voiced support for Adolf Hitler and has made a series of antisemitic remarks, which on multiple occasions saw him barred from X.
Last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
Over the weekend, Sir Keir Starmer joined the criticism of Wireless festival, saying it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism”.
Now, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) have said in a post on X: “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.”
The 48-year-old rapper’s 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.
In January of this year, West apologised for his comments, taking out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal titled: “To Those I’ve Hurt.”
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,
“I love Jewish people.”
In his open letter, West 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”.