'The BBC has questions to answer' Wes Streeting condemns broadcast of ​Bob Vylan Glastonbury act: 'Completely disgraceful!'

Delivering his verdict on the incident, Streeting condemned the performer's statements as "completely disgraceful" whilst noting that police are currently investigating the matter.

He expressed concern about how the act secured such a prominent platform at the festival.

The Health Secretary questioned both the BBC's decision to broadcast the performance and Glastonbury organisers' role in booking the artist for the event.

He suggested the comments were likely "attention seeking and publicity seeking" rather than genuine political discourse. He argued that focus should instead be on more pressing matters in the region.

Streeting said: "What we ought to be focusing on is the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank this week, the conduct of Israel's war in Gaza, and the fact that even now, and this is the perverse irony of what we saw at Glastonbury, the people, the Israelis who were taken from a music festival, killed, raped and still being held captive.

"Those are the serious issues we should be talking about, which shouldn't be minimised in the way that I think this act did."

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Streeting directed sharp criticism towards Hamas, describing the organisation as "a death cult". He expressed doubt that festival-goers would willingly live under such conditions.

"We should be in no doubt about that. And I suspect that half of those drunken revellers, most of those drunken revellers, wouldn't want to live a single day in life under Hamas," he said.

He added: "None of us would choose to live under that kind of oppression, but it's not for me as a Government minister to start dictating to arts organisations, or indeed, broadcasters, who you do and do not have on your programs."

Streeting also stressed the importance of responsible use of freedom: "I do think we should think seriously about how we exercise the freedoms that we enjoy in this country and be serious about peace and ending violence.

"Think about what on earth did that achieve yesterday?"

In response to the broadcast, a BBC spokesman said: "Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were deeply offensive.

"During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand."

Glastonbury Festival has said it is "appalled" by the actions.

In a statement, as spokesman said: "Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence."