Labour MP Calls on Home Office to Ban Hasan Piker From the UK

A Labour MP is urging the Home Office to revoke leftwing political commentator Hasan Piker’s visa ahead of his appearance at a festival in London next week. 

Piker, perhaps America’s most popular and recognisable leftist influencer, is billed to speak at a SXSW London event called ‘How the American left learned to speak the internet’ in June. 

Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead David Taylor has called on the Home Office to revoke Piker’s visa on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good.

Taylor has a history of opposing pro-Palestinian voices. Last year, he objected to the renewal of Francesca Albanese’s role as the special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and labelled her antisemitic. 

Piker is an outspoken critic of Israel, and speaks candidly to his approximately three million Twitch followers and nearly two million YouTube subscribers about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, class politics and the consequences of US foreign policy.

He is currently endorsing progressive candidates in a number of primaries, drawing the ire of the Democratic establishment. 

The streamer has been criticised for comments he made on an episode of Pod Save America, where Piker said he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time”. In the UK, Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation and showing support for it is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. 

A spokesperson for SXSW told the Times that the festival brings together “a wide range of speakers with different associations, affiliations and perspectives”.