Shabana Mahmood says hopes communities will be ‘kept safe’
Bob Vylan during the band’s controversial Glastonbury gig(Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
The Home Secretary has resisted a call to ask for Bob Vylan’s upcoming Manchester gig to be axed in the wake of the synagogue attack.
But Shabana Mahmood did tell MPs today (October 13) that the local safety advisory group should take ‘the measures that are required in order to keep our communities safe’ before a final decision is made on the concert.
It comes amid growing concerns surrounding the gig, which is scheduled to take place at the Manchester Academy on November 5.
Bob Vylan sparked controversy during this year’s Glastonbury Festival after chanting ‘death to the I.D.F.’ – meaning the Israel Defense Forces – amid the recent conflict in Gaza.
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Last week, 10 Greater Manchester MPs supported a statement from the Jewish Representative Council (JRC) of Greater Manchester and Region calling on Manchester Academy to cancel the gig.
Paul Waugh, Labour MP for Rochdale, was one of those MPs. Following a statement from the Home Secretary about the October 2 terror attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue, Mr Waugh invited her to join the calls for the show to be axed.
Paul Waugh asked the Home Secretary if she believed the gig should be cancelled(Image: Paul Waugh / UK Parliament)
He said: “Just a few days before that attack [in Crumpsall], the punk band Bob Vylan told a concert in Holland – and I quote – ‘eff the Zionists, get out there and fight, get out there and meet them in the streets’.
“That’s why I and other members in Greater Manchester have urged Manchester Academy to cancel the Bob Vylan concert that’s due next month, because this band are a direct threat to the Jewish community of Manchester.
“Does the Home Secretary agree with me that that concert should be cancelled?”
In response, Ms Mahmood said that ‘specific decisions’ on whether gigs can go ahead were ‘independent decisions informed by evidence’, made by safety advisory groups.
Shabana Mahmood speaks in Manchester following the synagogue attack(Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Ms Mahmood added: “It would be quite wrong of me as a Home Secretary to pre-empt either those decisions, or also, call into question the legal basis of those decisions by commenting on those from the despatch box.
“It is important those safety advisory groups, wherever they are, take into account all of the factors around some of these cultural events and ensure they take the measures that are required in order to keep our communities safe.
“That is the job they’re supposed to do, it is the job that I hope they will do.”
Bob Vylan was pulled from the line-up of Manchester’s Radar festival in the aftermath of their Glastonbury set, while they also had US visas revoked.
Bob Vylan’s frontman crowd surfs during their Glastonbury set(Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit found the broadcast of that set breached the corporation’s editorial standards in relation to harm and offence, following a large number of complaints.
The JRC statement claimed Bob Vylan had ‘repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that crosses the line from legitimate political discourse into anti-Semitism and incitement’.
The University of Manchester Students’ Union, which runs Manchester Academy, is yet to comment following the JRC’s statement.
The upcoming Manchester Academy concert is part of Bob Vylan’s ‘We Won’t Go Quetly’ tour. In an Instagram post announcing the gigs, the band said: “After all the attempts to silence us, we’re about to be louder than ever. We won’t go quietly.”
In a previous statement issued following the Glastonbury row, the band insisted they were ‘not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people, adding: “We are being targeted for speaking up. We are not the first. We will not be the last.”