Kanye West has been blocked from entering the UK and Wireless cancelled after his comments about wanting to ‘show change through his actions’
Wireless has been cancelled following Kanye’s UK travel ban
Kayne West has been dramatically blocked from entering the UK – and London’s Wireless Festival cancelled as a result, following widespread furore over the rapper’s planned appearance.
The US star, who now goes by ‘Ye’, had his permission to enter Britain blocked on Tuesday by the Home Office following a furious backlash over his three-night run of gigs at the festival in Finsbury Park this July.
The singer, who previously played Wireless in 2014, made an application to travel to the UK on Monday via an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), but the Home Office turned down his permission to travel on the grounds that his presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good.
It follows huge kickback from the Jewish community about the 48-year-old’s inclusion on the festival bill and calls to ban him from the country, following previous anti-semitic comments – including the releasing of a track last year entitled Heil Hitler, and a few months ago, the advertising of a swastika t-shirt for sale on his website.
As recently as February 2025 the musician was selling a white T-shirt featuring a black swastika on his website yeezy.com.
Sir Keir Starmer had called his headline appearance ‘deeply concerning’ and several sponsors – including chief sponsor Pepsi – had pulled out of funding the North London event.
Before it emerged that he had been banned from travel to the UK, Kanye issued a statement which said: “I’ve been following the conversation around Wireless and want to address it directly. My 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 London 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. Love Ye.”
A spokesperson for the Jewish Leadership Council in response to Ye’s statement told the Mirror, “Our position is clear. This was the problem: the festival organisers at Wireless decided to invite somebody who has a known history of very vile antisemitism.
“Now that they are facing pressure and reports about Kanye’s visa not being granted, suddenly we are supposedly being asked whether or not we would want to be meeting with Kanye West — and that’s not something we’d be prepared to do in that context.
They added, “At the moment the offer comes in the context of trying to save the festival. There’s a whole wider conversation as to whether or not this is a genuine reversal of his antisemitic views and wanting forgiveness.”
A spokesperson for the festival confirmed refunds would be issued to those who had already bought tickets.
They said, “Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had. As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK.”
Wireless Festival boss Melvin Benn had defended Kanye’s gigs in a statement on Monday night, saying people should “offer some forgiveness”.
Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, said that what the rapper had said in the past about Jews and Hitler was ‘as abhorrent to me as it is to the Jewish community’.
But he added: “I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.”
The promoter also underlined the key role the star’s mental health may have played. “Mental health is not something that disappears overnight. People suffer psychotic behaviour, suffer bipolar behaviour, for many, many years… And I think people are forgetting that.”
Kanye’s raft of controversial rhetoric is not new. In 2022 and 2025, he made antisemitic remarks and praised Adolf Hitler, including stating “I’m a Nazi” and threatening violence against Jewish people.
In 2022, he wore a White Lives Matter shirt at a Yeezy fashion show, following his jaw-dropping remark, during a TMZ interview in 2019, that slavery ‘sounded like a choice.’
Shocking online outbursts have included posting an image of a swastika and making offensive comments about celebrities such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé – and he has made no bones about his political affiliations, facing backlash for his vocal support of Donald Trump.
In an extensive apology, which ran as a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal in January, the rapper claimed his outbursts were linked to mental health diagnoses and a car accident he suffered in 2002.
His statement explained, “Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system. Denial. When you’re manic, you don’t think you’re sick.
“You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely.”
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