Kanye West has been blocked from travelling to the UK to headline Wireless Festival after a row over his antisemitic comments and growing pressure on the the government to intervene.
The rapper made an application to travel to the country on Monday via an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), but the Home Office stopped him on the grounds that his presence in the UK would “not be conducive to the public good”, it is understood.
It comes after government ministers and Jewish groups said organisers of the London festival should be “ashamed” for inviting the US rapper to headline all three days after he made a series of antisemitic statements last year. This included releasing a song called Heil Hitler and advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
Responding to the decision to block his entry into the country, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said the government “has clearly made the right decision”.
A spokesperson added: “For once, when it said that antisemitism has no place in the UK, it backed up its words with action.
“Someone who has boasted of making tens of millions of dollars from selling swastika t-shirts and who released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ just months ago clearly would not be conducive to the public good in the UK.
“Wireless Festival, in its desperate quest for profit, defended the invitation until the end. That is shameful, and its sponsors should continue to stay away.”
As tickets for the three Finsbury Park concerts went on sale, West said he would like to speak directly to the UK’s Jewish community following calls for him to be banned from the UK because of his behaviour.
But Jewish leaders refused to meetthe rapper, with the Jewish Leadership Council telling Wireless organisers they would not help “save their festival”.
The CAA also said it would not meet with the rapper and added that it would protest at Wireless if his planned performances go ahead as “nobody knows what might come out of Mr West’s mouth on that stage”.
However, Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group would be willing to meet with West if he pulled out of Wireless.
Amid growing calls for the rapper to be barred from headlining the festival, Melvin Benn, managing director at Festival Republic, which promotes Wireless Festival, claimed West already had a visa to enter the UK for the gigs, adding it was “issued in the last few days”.
In the wake of his comments, Downing Street insisted that “all options remain on the table” as the rapper’s permission to enter Britain was reviewed.
Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo all withdrew their sponsorship of the festival after West was announced as the headline act, and no brands appeared as visible sponsors on Wireless Festival’s official website on Monday evening – piling pressure on the government to intervene.
Additionally PayPal, which is a payment partner for the annual rap and hip-hop festival, will not appear in any of its future promotional materials, the Press Association understands.
Presale tickets for the concert went on sale at 12pm on Tuesday, ahead of a general sale on Wednesday.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said organisers of the festival in Finsbury Park should be “ashamed” after they “showed a terrible error of judgement” by booking West to perform.
“These weren’t a couple of off-colour remarks, these were a pattern of behaviour,” he told Sky News. “The releasing of a song called Heil Hitler, the plastering of that slogan across T-shirts, then using bipolar disorder as an excuse.
“And then when he realised the impact on his fame and his career, he came out with a mealy-mouthed apology, which has now been given a fig leaf of credibility by festival organisers who should be ashamed of themselves. So I’m appalled, actually.”
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, he 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”.
Festival Republic has been contacted for comment.
