Keir Starmer piles pressure on Wireless over “deeply concerning” Kanye West booking
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has heaped pressure on London’s Wireless Festival for booking Kanye West as its headliner amid his history of antisemitism.
West, who has not performed in the UK since headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2015, is set to headline all three nights of the festival at Finsbury Park in July.
The rapper, who now goes by the name Ye, previously declared that he was a Nazi on social media, said he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, sold swastika t-shirts and released a song titled ‘Heil Hitler’ in 2025.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Starmer said, “It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.”
Starmer continued, “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 Prime Minister’s comments come after Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, called for the UK to follow Australia’s example and ban West from the country.
The MP for Kingston and Surbiton said at a press conference on April 3rd, “Let me deal with Kanye West first; this is extremely serious. This is a person who wrote a song saying “Heil Hitler”, praising Adolf Hitler. I can’t think of anything more antisemitic.”
Davey added, “The Australian government has earlier banned him from going to Australia because of antisemitic hate speech, and we should too. The Home Secretary should ban him from coming to this country.”
Meanwhile, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said on April 1st, “The past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values.”
Additionally, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the UK’s leading charity fighting antisemitism, criticised the booking in exclusive comments made to Far Out, stating, “Kanye West has dedicated years of his life to trying to incite his followers to hate Jews. He has more followers than there are Jews on Earth, so his incitement has a huge impact.”
“His cycle of apology and relapse has become a routine, so as with any addict once again we must wait to see if this time is any different,” the charity added.
West’s apology, referenced by the CAA, saw the rapper take out a full-page spread earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal, apologising for his actions, blaming them on a brain injury and bipolar.
He has since released his new album, Bully, and returned to the stage at the So-Fi Stadium in California for two sold-out shows.
The current UK administration doesn’t have a history of banning artists from entering the country, but under the previous regime, then-Home Secretary Theresa May intervened in 2015 to prevent Tyler, The Creator from performing at Reading and Leeds Festival due to historical lyrics.
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