Kanye West should be banned from entering UK, says York MP

Rachael Maskell also said the rapper should be dropped from the line-up of Wireless Festival in London after antisemitic remarks voiced by West in recent years.

West has previously apologised for the remarks, saying his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.

Sir Keir Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked to perform at Wireless “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism”. The prime minister said antisemitism “in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears”.

West, who has been condemned for antisemitism, is set to top the bill for all three nights of Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park in July.

Wireless Festival has been approached for comment.

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.

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.

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central (Image: UK Parliament/PA Wire)

Ms Maskell, the Labour 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.”

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The prime minister joined criticism of the music festival over the weekend, telling the Sun on Sunday: “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.”

The Home Office referred to the prime minister’s statement, saying the government shared the same position on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also called for the government to ban West from entering the UK to perform at Wireless.

“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’,” CAA said in a post on social media. “Surely this is a clear case.”

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, 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”.