On 1 June, Keir Starmer’s Labour banned two US commentators from entering the UK. The men were Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and progressive news anchor Cenk Uygur. While we have some information on why the UK (wrongly) banned Uygur, we know next to nothing about its rationale for banning Piker:
The British Interior Ministry says Uygur and Piker are barred from entering the UK "based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society” … That is completely absurd. @Keir_Starmer should reverse this idiotic decision and let them speak. https://t.co/asvxpHXkBU
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) June 1, 2026
Labour ban
According to the Home Office, it barred both men from entry because their presence:
may not be conducive to the public good.
As Helena reported for Novara on 1 June, “there is no information as of yet as to why Hassan has been banned”. Piker himself suggested his ban was due to the following:
the uk has revoked my visa as well. all at the behest of israel. the west is betraying “liberal values” for a genocidal fascist foreign government. soon we will all become israel. https://t.co/UqQG1dogOI
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) May 31, 2026
Piker has good reason to suspect this given the expressed reasons for banning Uygur. Reporting on said reasons, the Times wrote:
The decision to block Uygur from travelling to the UK is understood to have been based on several grounds, including fears that his presence would risk exacerbating antisemitism due to his rhetoric since the October 7 attacks in 2023. This has included repeating classic antisemitic tropes, such as the claim that Israel controls America. He falsely claimed on his podcast in July last year that the Israeli lobby gave more to Congress than any other.
Uygur’s arguments about Israel ‘controlling’ America centre on the Middle Eastern country buying influence through donations to US politicians. The effectiveness of this is clear in the fact that Israel was able to drag the US into the disastrous war on Iran.
Establishment journalists will call you an antisemite for suggesting Israel dragged Trump into Iran, by the way, but the US freely admitted to it at one point:
I had to check to make sure this was legit, it is. America is being governed by a small foreign country far abroad, while we stagger around in a zombie like state, dabbling in an economy held together by Netflix subscriptions and gamified internet gamblinghttps://t.co/gsaZwWTiVS pic.twitter.com/p3H5Wr0Cch
— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) April 24, 2026
Uygur also disputed the last point made by the Times, noting:
the Israeli lobby has given more to the American Congress than any other lobby in the last election cycle, that is an empirical fact. So both the British government and apparently the Times are lying and saying that it isn’t true when it definitely is true and anyone could look it up.
As Uygur is noting, we live in a bizarro version of reality in which you can’t state facts about Israel if they resemble antisemitic conspiracies. It’s a get-out-of-jail free card, in other words.
And on the facts in question:
The record for most expensive House race in US history has once again been broken.
And the spending was once again fueled by the pro-Israel lobby.
- Thomas Massie vs Gallrein, $34m
- Jamaal Bowman vs Latimer, $25m
- Cori Bush vs Bell, $14m
That’s the work of a “grassroots”…
— Jacobin (@jacobin) May 19, 2026
Uygur responded to the other allegations against him in an interview with Novara:
Piker responds
Piker has made several statements about the ban since it happened, including:
i’ve been fighting the far right for a decade plus. i never would’ve imagined a labor govt would ban me from entering the uk. dark times ahead for the west. liberalism is dead, maga fascism and it’s corrosive influence is felt everywhere.
Piker’s most on-the-money statement is this, though:
“YOU CAN CRITICIZE THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, YOU CAN CRITICIZE THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ALL DAY, EVERY DAY BUT YOU CAN’T CRITICIZE THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT” – Hasan delivering a truth nuke about Western countries defending Israel. They defend Israel more than their own countries. pic.twitter.com/kTdMsyChGp
— adri ♡ (@socialistadri) June 1, 2026
In Britain, we’ve seen this with the arrest of those who support Palestine Action; in America, they’ve seen it with the arrest of students who oppose Israel’s genocide.
Journalists respond
Writer Adam Ramsay noted that neither Piker nor Uygur are fringe figures:
A Labour government banning relatively mainstream left wing American commentators from the UK is absolutely extraordinary. https://t.co/hqdcpqNiBC
— Adam Ramsay (@AdamRamsay) June 1, 2026
Millions of Americans and non-Americans watch Piker and Uygur every week; will the UK ban these viewers next? And if not, why not? Because they clearly hold similar opinions to the two men.
Culture and tech reporter Taylor Lorenz linked the decision to the government’s Online Safety Act:
As I reported for The Guardian last year, the first content censored under the Online Safety Act was anti govt/pro Palestinian speech. These “online safety” censorship laws are being used to deplatform leftist & LGBTQ creators en masse across the west https://t.co/h4eHZN4IpM
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 31, 2026
Aaron Maté of Grayzone, meanwhile, had this to say:
Sorry Prince Charles. When the UK calls itself “His Majesty’s Government”, they’re referring to Benjamin Netanyahu: https://t.co/31en50jTZo
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 31, 2026
Greens speak out
Green Party deputy Mothin Ali demanded to know what Andy Burnham thinks of all this:
Absurd and spineless.
Labour’s pound shop McCarthy’s has turned this country into an international laughing stock. ‘Vote Labour to stop Reform’ they say.
What’s the point! Seems only the Greens care about this stuff.Do you support this Mr Burnham? https://t.co/YLbC36Wx7c
— Mothin Ali (@MothinAli) June 1, 2026
Should Burnham win the Makerfield by-election, he will no doubt become the British prime minister. Despite this, we have very little idea of how he’ll govern (although we do know he supports current home secretary Shabana Mahmood and her aggressive immigration policy). As Mahmood is the one who banned Piker and Uygur, we need answers to this.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, meanwhile, called out the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism:
The headline talks about Antisemitism fears.
Yet both people were criticising a genocidal Israeli Government.
This constant conflation of criticism of Jewish people with criticism of Israel makes me as a Jewish person feel less safe.
Such a dangerous decision by Labour. pic.twitter.com/IaWYMwbTkx
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 1, 2026
Israel’s defenders are quick (and correct) to argue that you can’t blame all Jewish people for the actions of Israel. At the same time, they want the world to believe all criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
For another example of this doublethink, see the following:
Hasan discusses the irony of pro-Israel groups who advocated for his ban from the UK. They swiftly celebrated his ban. However, these pro-Israel groups then proceeded to claim that Hasan rightfully criticizing his ban was anti-semitic.
pic.twitter.com/KD7D3uBp5z
— adri ♡ (@socialistadri) June 1, 2026
In response to Polanski’s post, Uygur said:
63% of Jewish Americans are against the current Israeli government. Are they also antisemites? Some of the very best fighters for peace and for holding Israel accountable for their war crimes are Jewish. Will they be banned from the UK? Is there no end to this absurdity?
Predictable
Given the incredible backlash to the ban, it’s hard to understand what Labour sought to gain from all this. Alonso Gurmendi had an idea, however, in a discussion in which he suggested the government can’t have expected this level of backlash:
They appointed Mandelson…
— Alonso Gurmendi (@Alonso_GD) June 1, 2026
Commenter Nate Bear made a similar point:
Banning Hasan Piker has already generated so much more controversy than him speaking at that event ever would have and wins you precisely zero votes from a right that hates you anyway. Truly amazing how bad Starmer and the gang are at politics
— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) June 1, 2026
Public opinion has shifted against Israel since it began its genocide. The more that the public hates Israel, the more its defenders go to desperate lengths; the more desperate these lengths become, the more the public hates Israel.
Labour’s decision to ban Piker and Uygur is the latest example of this. And while the government is refusing to provide an honest explanation, everyone can see what’s happening here.
Featured image via WPA Pool (Getty Images) / Dave Kotinsky (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
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