WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur said over the weekend that he was banned from the United Kingdom for criticizing Israel.
“I’ve been banned from the UK,” he wrote on the social media platform, X. “I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I’ve 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!”
It was also reported by a UK publication that left-wing commentator Hasan Piker, who is Uygur’s nephew, was also banned from the country.
Representatives from the Home Office told Variety that Uygur and Piker’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) was revoked “on the grounds that their presence in the U.K. may not be conducive to the public good.”
Piker was supposed to appear on a London panel called “How the American Left Learned to Speak the Internet.”
According to The Times of London, the decision to ban Uygur came after an exchange he had with Piers Morgan about the grooming gangs scandal. It was reported him being there would “risk exacerbating antisemitism due to his rhetoric since the October 7 attacks in 2023.”
Morgan said the decision to ban Uygur was ridiculous.
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“Criticising the current Israeli Govt when it houses ministers like Ben Gvir & Smotrich is not ‘anti-semitism’ – it’s what any reasonable person should be doing,” Morgan said in a separate X post. “They’re psychopaths causing enormous damage to Israel’s global reputation.”