British Airways has pulled its Louis Theroux podcast sponsorship over his recent interview with Bob Vylan.
- READ MORE: Bob Vylan: “We’ve been screaming about these topics at the top of our lungs for years. Why has it taken this long?”
At this year’s Glastonbury Festival, the punk duo delivered a controversial performance on the West Holts Stage, using their platform to voice their support for the people of Palestine, call out the Israeli military and criticise the BBC, as well as the UK and US governments.
In the most provocative moment of the set, Vylan told the huge crowd, “have you heard this one?”, before leading a chant of “death, death to the IDF”. It led to a criminal investigation from Avon and Somerset Police, as well as the cancellation of multiple international shows and the revocation of their US visas.
Earlier this week, frontman Bobby Vylan gave his first in-depth interview on the subject on The Louis Theroux Podcast, in which he said he was “not regretful” of his remarks at Glasto, adding: “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. I’m not regretful of it at all.”
Now, British Airways has withdrawn its adverts from the podcast, saying that the content breached its sponsorship policy.
A spokesperson said, “Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed,” per the Guardian.
“We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters,” the statement continued.
“We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur and we’re investigating how this happened.”
In the podcast, Vylan said the backlash he had faced was “minimal”, adding: “It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through. If that can be my contribution and if I can have my Palestinian friends and people that I meet from Palestine that have had to flee, that have lost members in double digits of their family and they can say: ‘Yo, your chant, I love it.’ Or it gave me a breath of fresh air or whatever.”
He also said that he did not want to overstate the importance of the chant. “That’s not what I’m trying to do, but if I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret? Oh, because I’ve upset some rightwing politician or some rightwing media?”
Following the festival set, Avon and Somerset Police announced that they had launched a criminal investigation, while Bob Vylan also had their US tour visas revoked ahead of planned shows in October.
In July, it was reported that police were still investigating Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set. However, it was confirmed at the time that police had dropped their inquiry into Kneecap’s performance at the festival.
Last month saw Bob Vylan hit out at BBC director-general Tim Davie, after he called the corporation’s decision to broadcast their Glasto set live “a very significant mistake”. They called him a “spineless puppet” and once again denied any wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, they rescheduled their headline shows in Manchester and Leeds “due to political pressure” from MPs and Jewish leaders.
The gigs were originally set to be the first two stops on the London punk-rap duo’s 2025 ‘We Won’t Go Quietly’ UK and Ireland tour. They had been scheduled to perform at Leeds’ O2 Academy on November 4, before heading to Manchester Academy the following night (5).
The “political pressure” cited by Bob Vylan refers to various MPs and Jewish leaders recently expressing their concern over the duo’s northern dates.
The group have spoken out to defend their Glastonbury performance numerous times now. They’ve claimed it was vital to “teach our children to speak up for the change they want”, and reiterated that they were wanting the “dismantling of a violent military machine”.
The duo recently released their first new single since the controversy, ‘Sick Sad World’, where they called out Prime Minister Keir Starmer and “the BBC’s lies“.
