York MP says Kanye West ‘should not be allowed to come to our country’
York MP Rachael Maskell says Kanye West should be banned from entering the UK.
The rapper, who has been condemned for antisemitism, is set to top the bill for all three nights of the Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park in July.
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, and has made a series of antisemitic remarks.
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Ms Maskell said West should be banned from entering the UK over his previous antisemitic comments.
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.”
York Central MP Rachael Maskell
Asked whether the Home Secretary should step in to refuse the rapper a visa should he apply for one, Ms Maskell said: “I think it is clear, whether it’s in our cultural life or across society, that we should have zero tolerance for any form of antisemitism and therefore it is absolutely right that the Home Secretary takes the right considerations should an application be lodged.”
She added: “The Home Secretary should take appropriate steps should that occurrence happen.”
Last year, Kanye West 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.
Sir Keir Starmer joined criticism of the music festival over the weekend, saying it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked to perform “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism”.
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