Festival organiser spoke to BBC earlier – here’s what he saidpublished at 14:50 BST
Earlier today – before Wireless was cancelled – the managing director of the festival’s organiser Festival Republic said Kanye West’s visa to enter the UK had been “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,” Melvin Benn told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “If she [Shabana Mahmood] does, she does, and then the issue is over in terms of his appearance.”
Hours later, as we now know, the government decided to ban West from entering the UK.
During his interview with Today, Benn also said Jewish communities had decided against meeting West: “We have reached out and they’ve refused to meet him.”
However, a Board of Deputies spokesperson told the BBC: “Neither the Board of Deputies nor, we understand, the Jewish Leadership Council has refused any request to meet with the Wireless festival organisers.
“When the Board of Deputies received a letter from Melvin Benn on 6 April, proposing to meet, in response to a letter we sent setting out our concerns, we responded positively. In any event we are clear that the invitation to Kanye West to perform should be rescinded.”
