“Why did BBC not pull plug on vile chants?” asks the Daily Express after the broadcaster aired punk duo Bob Vylan’s chants of “death, death to the IDF” in a livestream of Glastonbury Festival. “Both the broadcaster and the music festival faced widespread condemnation,” it writes. A BBC spokesperson previously said some of the comments made were “deeply offensive” and they had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language”. There are no plans to make the performance available on iPlayer, they added.
“BBC chiefs ‘should face charges’ over Glastonbury” reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Mail. It quotes Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp who said that the BBC “appears to have broken the law”. A shot of the British women’s tennis pair also graces the front page as the Mail asks if Emma Radacanu and Katie Boulter will “ace it for Britain at SW19?”
The Daily Telegraph also leads with Bob Vylan, quoting Philp who says the “hate rapper ‘must be treated like Connolly'”. A failure to do so would be “a clear example of two-tier justice under Sir Keir Starmer”, he said. Lucy Connolly received a 31-month prison sentence after admitting inciting racial hatred in a social media post after the Southport killings.
There is “no excuse for BBC hate” writes The Sun, which also leads on the Glastonbury controversy. The paper quotes the prime minister saying “the BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast”.
The Metro says Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also “waded into” the row after the Israeli embassy called the chants “inflammatory and hateful”. It reports Streeting condemned the chants and told the embassy to “get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank”.
Sir Keir faces a “backbench showdown despite rowing back over welfare bill” writes the Financial Times. Today, the PM will attempt a “last-ditch bid to woo” Labour rebels, while the FT reports changes to the bill have reduced government savings from £5bn to about £2bn. The uncertainty of a vote on its outcome is “highly unsusual” and suggests “tensions and bad blood within the Labour party”, it writes. Also on the front page, a Cambridge laboratory is working on a “biological computer” made of 200,000 human brain cells they have grown.
The Times goes with the “PM battles to stave off revolt” on the welfare cuts. The Times also runs with the story of the BBC airing Bob Vylan’s IDF chants saying the boss has been told to “get a grip or quit”. The paper co-ordinates with Sir Rod Stewart’s Glastonbury suit to announce “Wimbledon begins today!”
“Rebel Labour whip calls for more welfare concessions” headlines The Guardian. Vicky Foxcroft, who resigned as whip over the bill, tells the paper the government must work with disabled people on changes and publish a review.
“NHS weight-loss jabs” will now come “from your pharmacy”, reports the i Paper, as part of the government’s new “obesity plan”. The Health Secretary Wes Streeting “wants everyone who is clinically obese to get jabs on NHS if they need them”.
It is “meltdown Monday” says the Daily Star as a “2000 mile-wide 35C heat bubble sparks beach dash”.
“Heat is on” declares The Daily Mirror as reports Monday is set to be the “hottest day of the year”.
While Sir Rod Stewart’s performance in the Legends slot at Glastonbury features on many front pages, it is the previous night’s calls by the punk group Bob Vylan for “death to the IDF” that dominate the coverage.
The Sun quotes the prime minister as saying the BBC needs to explain how scenes of “appalling hate speech” were broadcast. The Daily Express asks why the BBC did not pull the plug on “vile chants”. The Corporation says a warning was shown on screen, and the performance will not be available on demand.
The Daily Mail says the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, has called for BBC chiefs to face charges. The Daily Telegraph says Philp also believes the singer who led the chants should himself be prosecuted for inciting violence. But writing in the Times, the former head of BBC Television, Danny Cohen, says it is the crowds themselves that the Jewish communuity will be disturbed by most. “A mass display of violent intent against Jews took place at Glastonbury. Murderous hate was celebrated,” he observes, concluding that “racism against Jews is now the only permissible form of racism”.
Another big story is the forthcoming parliamentary vote on the government’s proposed welfare reforms. The Financial Times says the prime minister is still facing a backbench showdown, despite having rowed back on parts of the bill. The Guardian says Vicky Foxcroft – the MP who resigned as a government whip over the cuts – believes the concessions do not yet go far enough. The Daily Mirror argues that whatever changes are made, the most vulnerable must not be made to pay the price.
The i Paper’s chief political commentator, Kitty Donaldson, writes: “You’d be forgiven for thinking Labour’s first year in office has been a carousel of disasters, from freebies to winter fuel and its latest U-turn on welfare reforms.” Listing what she regards as successes in health, education and housing, she notes that the prime minister has “benefited from weak political opposition, which can’t be the case forever. Now his Government needs to avoid even more self-inflicted errors”.
The “heat is on”, says the Daily Mirror as it looks ahead to what it expects to be “the hottest day of the year.” The Daily Star talks of “Meltdown Monday”. With the tennis championships about to begin at Wimbledon, the Daily Express headlines its story “Game, Sweat, Match”.
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