THE Labour Government has chosen to remain silent amid a growing backlash at the decision to ban two left-wing US speakers from entering the UK.
Hasan Piker, a political streamer with 1.9 million YouTube subscribers, and Cenk Uygur, the co-founder of the left-wing political programme The Young Turks, have both been blocked from coming to the UK as the Home Office decided their visits would not be “conducive to the public good”, it is understood.
Both Uygur and Piker alleged that they had been blocked due to their criticism of Israel, with Uygur saying: “This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!”
Piker uploaded a YouTube video in which he read out a letter from the UK Government saying: “Your UK ETA has been cancelled. This means you cannot travel to the UK without a visa. This is because your presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good. You cannot appeal this decision.”
The Home Office declined to comment on the bans, which are made on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to “UK society”.
The Labour administration’s decision has sparked anger on both sides of the Atlantic.
Zack Polanski, the Green leader in England and Wales with whom Piker was due to meet, said: “This is a really grim decision, alongside Cenk. People often talk about [the] dangerous road we'd go down under a Reform government – this is another clear warning we're down there already. A Labour government doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli Government.”
He added that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood “needs to explain this strange and worrying decision, and Andy Burnham needs to make his view clear”.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was also due to meet Piker during his UK visit, said: “Banning Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the UK is an absurd and cowardly decision from an increasingly authoritarian government.
“Let us call this what it is: an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel, as well as the UK Government’s own complicity in genocide.”
Piers Morgan, on whose show Uygur made comments which The Times said helped Mahmood to decide to ban him from the UK, called the ban “ridiculous”.
WHAT? This is ridiculous. https://t.co/V2IoENnqY4
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 1, 2026
LBC host Lewis Goodall called the bans “counter-productive, authoritarian and chilling”.
“The British state should not be in the business of banning commentators and journalists from entering the country, without compelling reason,” Goodall added. “Finding their views objectionable is nowhere near enough.”
He said that while Piker had “said some stupid and revolting things", Uygur “is a mainstream US commentator on the left”.
Scottish commentator Coll McCail noted: “As Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur are denied entry to the UK, it’s worth remembering that [Israeli president] Isaac Herzog — accused of ‘direct and public incitement to commit genocide’ by the UN Commission of Inquiry report — was welcomed by Keir Starmer on the steps of No10 in September.”
Ash Sarkar, the left-wing commentator who was supposed to chair an event with Piker at London’s 2026 SXSW festival, said organisers “must facilitate a way for Hasan and Cenk to contribute remotely, as a bare minimum refusal to comply with government censorship”.
She went on: “Every time [Labour] ban someone, whether they're from the left or from the right, from entering the UK, they're creating resentment, suspicion, and blame.”
US journalist Glenn Greenwald said that Piker and Uygur had been banned “solely because they criticize and oppose the one country deemed sacred and off-limits in the UK and so many other western countries: Israel”.
“The UK under Labour is also regularly arresting its own citizens for peacefully protesting Israel's genocide in Gaza (including old British ladies and countless Jewish activists at these protests, though they remain free to protest in favor of Israel or against any other country),” he wrote.
“This is all driven by the same dynamic that caused the Trump Admin – as one of its very earliest top priorities last year – to force US universities to expel American students protesting Israel, to deport others who merely criticized Israel, and to implement aggressive speech codes to protect Israel from common criticisms (even though one is free to say all the same things about any other country, including the US).
“Why does this one small country command such special, elevated, supreme status and attention in so many western countries? It's way past time to give that question the attention it deserves and to finally put an end to it.”
Left-wing US commentator Kyle Kulinski called the ban on the pair “one of the most brazen and pathetic attacks on free speech I’ve ever seen”.
Far-right US speaker Joey Mannarino, who last year was allowed into the UK to attend Britain First rallies but was banned from coming back this year, said that while he believes Piker and Uygur are “vile” he “condemn[s] them being banned”.
“People should not be banned from countries for ideas they have,” he wrote on social media.
However David Taylor, a Labour MP who had called for Piker to be barred from the UK, welcomed the news.
“Thank you Home Secretary for revoking Hasan Piker's visa,” the Labour trade envoy said.
“There's no reason to open our doors to those who seek to spread hate and division, especially to those who've supported a proscribed terror group.”
Piker said last month that he stood by comments that Hamas was “1000 times better” than Israel and that he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time” in an episode of Pod Save America.
He said he is not antisemitic but “anti-Israel” in an interview with Variety last year.
The Times reported that Uygur had been banned from the UK as he could “risk exacerbating antisemitism due to his rhetoric”, as well as “concerning” comments about grooming gangs, and alleged “misogynistic slurs” he has made in the past.
The bans come after Kanye West, who has used Nazi imagery and faced accusations of antisemitism, was barred from travelling to the UK to headline Wireless festival.
The UK Government also blocked 11 foreign nationals described by Keir Starmer as “far-right agitators” from entering the UK ahead of a Tommy Robinson-led rally in central London last month.
Those claiming to have been barred include Polish politician Dominik Tarczynski, Belgian politician Filip Dewinter, anti-Islam commentator Valentina Gomez, and Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek.
