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Keir Starmer has said it is \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d that Kanye West, the US rapper who has made a series of antisemitic comments, is to appear at a British music festival.<\/p>\n
The prime minister joins others who have criticised Wireless festival<\/a> for booking the musician, also known as Ye, to headline all three nights of the forthcoming event in London.<\/p>\n The rapper has drawn widespread condemnation in recent years after he began voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler<\/a>, and has made a series of antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n Last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler<\/a>, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.<\/p>\n Starmer said: \u201cIt is deeply concerning that Kanye West<\/a> has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.<\/p>\n \u201cAntisemitism 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,\u201d he added, in comments first reported by the Sun on Sunday.<\/p>\n Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has called on the government to ban West from entering the UK, saying: \u201cWe need to get tougher on antisemitism.\u201d He described West\u2019s planned appearance as \u201cextremely serious\u201d.<\/p>\n The Jewish Leadership Council last week condemned Wireless festival<\/a> for booking the rapper, who will appear after heightened attacks on the UK Jewish community. The conduct of the organisers was \u201cdeeply irresponsible,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has also said it was \u201cabsolutely the wrong decision\u201d to allow West to play.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the London<\/a> mayor, Sadiq Khan, said: \u201cWe are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London\u2019s values. This was a decision taken by the festival organisers and not one that City Hall is involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n West apologised in January<\/a> for his antisemitic remarks in a letter published as a full-page advert<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n In his letter, he apologised to Jewish and black people, and said his bipolar disorder had led him to fall into \u201ca four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life\u201d.<\/p>\n Wireless festival, which is sponsored by Pepsi, has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n