British Jewish groups have refused to meet Kanye West after the rapper offered to ahead of his “appalling” headline slot at Wireless Festival this summer.
Government ministers and Jewish groups have 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.
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.
But the Jewish Leadership Council rejected the offer almost immediately, telling organisers they would not help “save their festival”.
They wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Kanye West’s recent history of vile antisemitism was fully known to the festival organisers when they invited him. Now with the entirely predictable backlash they are facing, the British Jewish community is being asked to help save their festival. We are not going to meet Kanye West for that purpose.”
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.
The health secretary told Sky News that West has “no business headlining” Wireless, and hit out at the organisers’ judgement.
“These weren’t a couple of off-colour remarks, these were a pattern of behaviour,” he said. “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.”
Ministers are currently reviewing West’s permission to enter the UK after Sir Keir Starmer called the decision “deeply concerning”.
Despite calls to reconsider the booking from Jewish groups and major sponsors who have withdrawn their support, the festival defended their decision in a statement on Monday.
Melvin Benn, managing director at Festival Republic, which promotes Wireless Festival, said West’s comments were “abhorrent”, but said he is “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature”.
Describing himself as a “person of forgiveness”, Mr Benn said: “He is intended to come in and perform. We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday that West has an approved visa to come to the UK which was “issued in the last few days”.
“He has a visa already issued to appear, to come into the country, and the Home Secretary may well rescind that today, I don’t know,” he said.
“If she does, she does, and then the issue is over in terms of his appearance.”
Mr Streeting criticised Mr Benn’s initial statement, saying it showed “another terrible error of judgement”.
The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, has also said it was “time for Wireless to do the decent thing and rescind an invitation they never should have offered”.
As tickets for the three concerts went on sale, West offered to meet with the British Jewish community.
“I’ve been following the conversation around Wireless and want to address it directly,” he said in a statement. “My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace, and love through my music.
“I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the UK in person, to listen.
“I know words aren’t enough – I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”
Mr Benn also told Today that organisers had reached out to Jewish communities “over the last couple of days” about meeting West, but they had refused.
Asked whether he should have done it earlier when organisers were making a decision, Mr Benn said: “Potentially we should have done and that may prove to be a mistake that we’ve made.”
He added: “I’m not telling them, I’m asking them. If they say no, they have the right to that opinion, of course they do.
“I want to give people a second chance and I think Kanye West, “Ye” as he is now officially known, should be given a second chance and should be able to become an advocate for the very same community that he has upset so much.”
Pepsi and Diageo 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.
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.
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.”
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”.
Referring to this, Mr Streeting has said he thinks the use of bipolar disorder by West to justify his actions is “appalling”.
Mr Streeting said on Tuesday: “When Kanye West uses bipolar disorder to justify his actions, I think that is equally appalling by the way.”
He added: “I would ask people to consider, does using bipolar disorder as an excuse to write and release a song called Heil Hitler and plaster it across T-shirts, does bipolar disorder really justify that? Or is it an excuse to justify rotten behaviour?”
Meanwhile, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said West’s antisemitic songs are “deeply troubling”, but said the condemnation of his headline slot “is absolutely a bandwagon that’s being jumped on”.
