Keir Starmer Blasts Wireless Festival Over Kanye West Headline Booking
Keir Starmer has slammed the organisers of a major music festival for booking Kanye West.
The rapper, who has sparked anger in the past over his anti-semitic remarks, including voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler, is due to headline Wireless in Finsbury Park, north London, this summer.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Starmer said: “It is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.
“Anti-semitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan has also hit out at the festival for booking West – who is also known as Ye.
He said: “We are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values.
“This was a decision taken by the festival organisers and not one that City Hall is involved in.”
Groups including the Jewish Leadership Council, the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and Board Of Deputies Of British Jews all condemned the booking, with the president of the latter going as far as questioning whether the government should be “blocking” Ye from “entering the country”.
In 2025, Ye’s Australian travel visa was revoked in light of a single he released titled Heil Hilter, which was banned by YouTube, Spotify and Apple, among other music streaming services.
His online store on the platform Shopify had previously been pulled when he began selling a t-shirt emblazoned with a swastika and a slogan alluding to Hitler’s Nazi party.
Earlier this year, he took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to apologise for his past antisemitism, claiming his actions came about at a time in which he’d “lost touch with reality” as a result of his bipolar disorder.
He also maintained that he’s neither a “Nazi” nor an “antisemite” (and, in fact, “loves Jewish people”) and apologised specifically to those within the Black community who feel that he “let them down” with his actions.
Following this, he dismissed the suggestion that this apology was a “PR move” to allow him to return to releasing music and carrying out his numerous businesses.
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