Government considers stripping Wiley of MBE
CONTROVERSIAL RAPPER Wiley may be stripped of his MBE, the JC has learnt.
The musician — real name Richard Cowie — who has been accused of antisemitism had a warrant issued for his arrest last week, after failing to attend a court hearing in relation to charges of assault and burglary. He is suspected of breaking into a flat in Newham and assaulting a recording studio owner on August
28.
In emails seen by the JC, the government’s Forfeiture Committee stated that awards may be revoked if the honours system is “brought into disrepute” such as a case where an award recipient is sentenced to a prison term of over three months. They also confirmed that they were monitoring Wiley’s assault case, as well as a separate probe in the Netherlands related to his antisemitic social media posts from 2020. In posts on Twitter, Wiley accused Jewish people of racism and referred to all Jews as “cowards”and “snakes”, and told “black people” to go to “war” with Jewish people. Last weekend, a nightclub in Preston came under fire for booking Wiley for a student night called Switch. The UK’s Union of Jewish Students said it is “appalling that Switch Preston decided to go ahead with this event, despite outrage from Jewish students over Wiley’s previous antisemitic comments.
“The club were fully aware of Wiley’s antisemitic conduct, yet arrogantly decided to host this event regardless. This is unacceptable and demonstrates that the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students is of lower importance to them than an event with one of the biggest recording artists to ever grace the Switch stage.”
There was also a strong response from the University of Central Lancashire students’ union.
It said: “We condemn all forms of antisemitism and given the previous actions of Wiley, which include a series of antisemitic social media posts, we strongly encourage Switch to cancel this event and reconsider any further ties with Wiley and his management.”
The rapper told black people to go to war with Jews