Politics
Polanski leads backlash to UK’s Hasan Piker ban
Zack Polanski has slammed the government for banning Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and news anchor Cenk Uygur from entering the country. As we reported, it follows a pattern of this Labour government using any means at its disposal to clamp down on the civil liberties of those who oppose Israel. And we’re far from the only ones to make this argument:
Shabana Mahmood, we’re told will get a senior position in an Andy Burnham government.
She needs to explain this strange and worrying decision, and Andy Burnham needs to make his view clear.
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 1, 2026
Polanski was set to be interviewed
Piker was due to spend seven days in the UK, and planned to speak with Polanski in addition to Jeremy Corbyn and Yanis Varoufakis. Piker said the following in response to the ban:
ironic because a year ago, i delivered a speech at oxford union about the dangers of conflating judaism and zionism & how this foments antisemitism. since then the government has arrested pensioners for protesting against israel and let iof war criminals roam free! https://t.co/C6f9poXFR3
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) June 1, 2026
Uygur, meanwhile, said this:
It's an honor to have made Israel's enemies list. I'm very proud to have fought against their genocide.
The mighty United Kingdom is afraid of speech that shows you who's responsible for those war crimes. But no amount of censorship will get us to stop telling the truth. — Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) June 1, 2026
We go into the decision to ban Piker in much further detail here. Back to Polanski, he’s absolutely correct to call out Shabana Mahmood and the Home Office. This is the government department which labelled Palestine Action a terrorist group. This action led to the mass arrests of activists who refused to be bowed by the government:
BREAKING: Police move in to arrest action takers from People Against Genocide, who were blockading an Israeli military drone factory in Staffordshire.
The factory, UAV Engines, is owned by Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems, manufacturers of 85% of Israel's killer drone fleet. pic.twitter.com/1Wr4PIxi95
— The Aftershock (@The_Aftershock_) June 1, 2026
Police have made 2100 arrests under terrorism laws in the UK for protesting peacefully against the banning of Palestine Action. This cannot go unchallenged. The UK’s chief prosecutors must now decide whether to prosecute them. We need to urge them not to. Add your name to the…
— Andrew Feinstein (@andrewfeinstein) November 11, 2025
The government has also used duplicitous tactics to criminalise members of Palestine Action:
Four of the Palestine Action protestors have been convicted by jury of criminal damage.
At no point was it put to the jury that the judge may sentence them as terrorists.
This is unprecedented move and could set a further dangerous precedent for future cases relating to…
— Apsana Begum MP (@ApsanaBegumMP) May 28, 2026
Wider response
Ash Sarkar of Novara Media is among those who have spoken out against the decision:
I was supposed to chair the [Piker] discussion at SXSW this week, who’s been banned from entering the UK by Shabana Mahmood.
First of all, [SXSW] must facilitate a way for Hasan and Cenk to contribute remotely, as a bare minimum refusal to comply with government censorship. Secondly, it’s abundantly clear that the UK government has put Israel at the heart of its policymaking around free expression.
Whether it’s proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist group, arresting hundreds of people for holding signs supporting it… or banning [Uygur] and Hasan Piker from the UK for speech acts *which would not be unlawful in this country*, what we’re witnessing is an authoritarian turn motivated by Labour’s fear of being called antisemitic, and fear of being called out for their position on the genocidal war on Gaza.
Sarkar added:
So, with Cenk and Hasan having their visas revoked, what are people gonna do? They’re going to look at things which are absolutely true – e.g. that those who served in the IDF, and may have been participants in or witnesses to war crimes, can travel to the UK freely.
SXSW, meanwhile, issued the following mealy mouthed response:
SXSW London has released a statement regarding speakers Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur being barred from entering the U.K.:
“Decisions on entry to the U.K. are a matter for the Home Office and the individuals concerned. SXSW London’s role is to convene a broad range of diverse…
— Variety (@Variety) June 1, 2026
Jeremy Corbyn also spoke out:
Banning Cenk Uyghur and Hasan Piker from entering the UK is an absurd and cowardly decision from an increasingly authoritarian government.
Let us call this what it is: an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel, as well as the UK government’s own complicity in genocide. https://t.co/c6jUrF3prA — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 1, 2026
Declassified UK said:
The UK has barred Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur from entering the country, with both saying it's in response to their criticism of Israel.
Yet Brits who have fought for the IDF can return home without any investigation.
Our campaign seeks to change that:https://t.co/ctAGZEmANW
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) June 1, 2026
Piers Morgan has often hosted Uygur, and was duly appalled at the decision to ban him from the country:
WHAT? This is ridiculous. https://t.co/V2IoENnqY4
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 1, 2026
Morgan further said:
Not true. I only support banning people who advocate violence or who spew hateful bigotry against people based on their ethnicity/religion. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 1, 2026
Where has Cenk done that?
His rage has been against the Israel govt and its policies.
Free speech should protect that. https://t.co/4xtjStFCsa
Centrist commentator Lewis Goodall had this to say:
The Kanye case was far more borderline but the idea of this becoming more routine was exactly my fear when I spoke/wrote about my unease at his prohibition from the country a few months ago. https://t.co/nHWyi6cItK https://t.co/DJ9zQmBIQZ
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) June 1, 2026
In defence of
Standing alone as ever, Starmer cheerleader Paul Mason celebrated the clampdown:
Britain is becoming a #MilitantDemocracy – bad for the grift business, good for us! pic.twitter.com/BlD0Nzbtal
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) June 1, 2026
Although Mason was a prominent voice on the British left during the Corbyn years, he went on to become a wannabe spook. In aid of his spookery, Mason produced the following (allegedly) – a notorious work of conspiracism that’s seen him ridiculed for years:
Paul Mason's cocaine binge mind map has two Left/Over guests, all my mutuals and the nation of China as different nodes pic.twitter.com/Eysx3rREmt
— Ghostface Kafka (36 Chambers) (@thekafkadude) June 5, 2022
As Aaron Bastani of Novara pointed out, this unfathomable spider diagram included some very odd connections:
Disagreeing with Paul Mason on twitter is now evidence of…antisemitism?
Do you actually believe that @tom_belger?
The ‘bile’ is partly because the man himself made conspiratorial flow charts (including a line between Novara Media and the ‘black community’). pic.twitter.com/pW7ACdkKXq — Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 20, 2023
Double standards
While Piker is barred from the UK, US politicians are posing with Bezalel Smotrich in New York:
Why is it controversial for Zohran to skip a parade bc of his principles but not for Democratic politicians to march with a fascist bigot like Smotrich? https://t.co/wWA72Ewym8
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) June 1, 2026
This is what HG reported for the Canary on Smotrich:
Smotrich is the leader of the far-right Religious Zionist party and an illegal settler who lives in the Occupied West Bank. His Ministry of Finance owns an arms factory in the UK, which has recently been awarded contracts with the UK government.
Smotrich has repeatedly called for Israel to completely ethnically cleanse all 1.8m people from Gaza, so it can ‘be settled’.
Piker’s ‘crime’, meanwhile, is pointing out that guys like Smotrich deserve universal condemnation.
Featured image via Kris Connor (Getty Images) / Jon Rowley (Getty Images) / Martin Sylvest Andersen (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
You must be logged in to post a comment Login