{"id":53527,"date":"2026-06-01T11:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/53527\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T11:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:16:12","slug":"two-left-wing-us-political-commentators-banned-from-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/53527\/","title":{"rendered":"Two left-wing US political commentators banned from UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two US left-wing commentators have been banned from entering the UK <\/a>to speak at a conference this week, the Home Office has confirmed.<\/p>\n

Cenk Uygur, host of the long-running The Young Turks online political talk show, and Hasan Piker, a prominent influencer and streamer, say they have been prevented from appearing at SXSW London, due to run from Monday to Saturday.<\/p>\n

Both of the commentators have had their Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) cancelled by the UK government<\/a> on the grounds that their presence in the country may not be conducive to the public good.<\/p>\n

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called the decision \u201creally grim\u201d, writing on social media: \u201cPeople often talk about dangerous road we’d go down under a Reform government – this is another clear warning we’re down there already.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Labour government<\/a> doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two banned commentators have also linked their bans to previous criticism of Israel. <\/a> Mr Uygur wrote online: \u201cI\u2019ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HasanHasan Piker at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (Getty)<\/p>\n

He added that he had tried to get on the flight to London before finding out he had been banned from entering the country. He was also due to speak at an event run by University of Oxford students.<\/p>\n

Mr Piker said the UK had revoked his visa \u201cat the behest of Israel\u201d and that the West was \u201cbetraying\u201d its liberal values for a \u201cfascist foreign government\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Home Office<\/a> decides whether to refuse or cancel an ETA based on an assessment of potential risk an individual may pose to UK society.<\/p>\n

The duo remain able to apply for a visa, which would be freshly considered, but this would likely not be in time for the upcoming SXSW London event.<\/p>\n

Mr Piker has faced backlash for his comments in the past, including reportedly saying on a stream in 2019 that \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11\u201d, which he later apologised for and said was \u201cinappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The commentator has also stood by is comments that Hamas is \u201c1,000 times better\u201d than Israel, and that he \u201cwould vote for Hamas over Israel every single time\u201d. Mr Piker has said he is not antisemitic, and defines his viewpoint as anti-Israel.<\/p>\n

\"CenkCenk Uygur, pictured in 2023 (Getty)<\/p>\n

SXSW organisers previously described him as \u201credefining what political commentary looks like in the digital age\u201d, adding that his live streams reach more than 30,000 people every day.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Jewish organisation the Community Security Trust urged the festival to \u201cact responsibly\u201d and not allow the UK to be a \u201cplatform\u201d for Mr Piker. They added that he has a \u201crecord of promoting rhetoric that includes antisemitic themes, denial of well-documented atrocities and apparent support for extremist groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

The decision to block Mr Uygur is understood to be based on concerns that his presence would risk exacerbating antisemitism, The Times reports.<\/p>\n

He has been accused of propagating tropes in the past in his discussions of America-Israel relations. The paper also noted concerns that he appeared to dismiss evidence relating to grooming gangs in towns such as Rotherham in conversation with Piers Morgan last year.<\/p>\n

The Home Office has declined to comment. Under Shabana Mahmood, who became secretary last year, the department has been accused by groups such as Amnesty International and Defend Our Juries of unduly cracking down on freedom of expression. Over 3,000 protestors have been arrested to date for Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terror group by the Home Office in 2025.<\/p>\n

SXSW London has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n

It has previously said that it\u2019s event hosts \u201cwide range of speakers with different associations, affiliations and perspectives\u201d and that \u201cinclusion in the programme does not imply endorsement of all organisations with whom a speaker may be directly or indirectly affiliated\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[26408,10091,7846,773,26409,6764,26410,19883,26411,26415,26414,6767,26412,5,6,37,26413,26407],"class_list":["post-53527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-arrival","tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","tag-california","tag-celebrities","tag-city-of-los-angeles","tag-color-image","tag-entertainment-event","tag-hasan-piker","tag-los-angeles-county-museum-of-art","tag-mark-guiducci","tag-oscar-party","tag-photography","tag-red-carpet-event","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-usa","tag-vanity-fair-oscar-party","tag-vertical"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116674572103639391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}