Keir Starmer has been told to block Kanye West from entering Britain in order to prevent him performing in London this summer.
The Prime Minister is being urged to bar the American rapper from the UK by deeming him a person who is ‘not conducive to the public good’.
West, also known as Ye or Yeezy, has drawn widespread criticism in recent years after he began voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler and made a series of anti-Semitic remarks.
He is set to top the bill for all three nights of Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park in July.
Pepsi and Diageo withdrew their sponsorship of the festival after West was announced as the headline act.
The PM himself joined criticism of the event saying it is ‘deeply concerning’ that West is due to perform ‘despite his previous anti-Semitic remarks and celebration of Nazism’.
Sir Keir is now under growing pressure to take legal steps to ensure West can’t enter the UK ahead of his summer gigs.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has powers to ‘exclude’ someone from Britain if they are not considered conducive to the public good.
This can include those who have ‘engaged in extremism or other unacceptable behaviour’, or someone who ‘if admitted to the UK the person is likely to incite public disorder’.
A person does not need to have a criminal conviction to be refused admission on non-conducive grounds, according to Home Office guidance.
Labour backbencher Rachael Maskell, the 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 PM 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 anti-Semitic comments that he has made and recorded.’
Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham, told The Telegraph: ‘It’s certainly an option we should be looking at given he’s gone from being one of the world’s most impressive artists to releasing a song called ‘Heil Hitler’.’
In a post on X, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said: ‘The PM is right to be deeply concerned that Wireless Festival wants to headline someone whose anti-Jewish bigotry has gone as far as recording a track titled ‘Heil Hitler’ less than a year ago.
‘But the PM is not a bystander. The Government can ban anyone from entering the UK who is not a citizen and whose presence would ‘not be conducive to the public good’. Surely this is a clear case.’
West has not performed in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015.
Last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
He has been barred from social media site X over anti-Semitism on multiple occasions.
West is said, as of last week, to have not yet made a visa application for his trip to the UK.
In January this year, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising for anti-Semitic behaviour.
In an open letter titled ‘To Those I’ve Hurt’, West attributed his inflammatory actions to bipolar disorder, which he said he developed as a result of an injury sustained in a car crash 25 years ago.
‘I am not a Nazi or an anti-Semite,’ he wrote, adding: ‘I love Jewish people.’
He previously made an apology to the Jewish community in 2023 in a social media statement posted in Hebrew.
West went on to begin selling swastika t-shirts on his website in February 2025.
