Piers Morgan criticized the British government for banning controversial internet personalities Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the United Kingdom over their anti-Israel sentiments.
“There is a huge difference between criticizing the actions of a nationstate and its government and the hate-filled diatribes of Kanye West or Valentina Gomez,” he said on Monday’s episode of “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” “But my country is losing the ability to see that difference. It won’t be long before that’s something, which threatens all of us.”
Uygur and his nephew Piker were banned from traveling to the U.K. just days ahead of their scheduled appearance at SXSW London, stating that British authorities cited their public criticisms of Israel.
Uygur, co-founder of The Young Turks and a resolute critic of Israel, has been a regular guest on Morgan’s program. The British conservative news host even posited that some of Uygur’s comments made on the show may have led to him being banned from entering the county.
“You may not agree with any of Cenk’s positions, but anyone with even the faintest grasp on popular discourse will know they are mainstream opinions, which are freely debated almost every single day,” Morgan said. “By this standard, half of the guests on the show would be banned from Britain.”
Uygur had previously appeared on Morgan’s show and said he intended to “greatly offend Israel” and was not sure if he would be arrested for his views. Morgan further defended his repeat guest saying that his rhetoric is not that of “an extremist or a dangerous purveyor of threatening hate speech.”
“He’s mainstream enough to appear along leading Democrats like Ro Khanna and AOC but apparently he’s too hot for we Brits to handle,” Morgan said.
Uygur appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” Monday claiming that the British government claimed he criticized Israel “in the wrong ways.”
“Over 60% of Americans are critical of Israel, will we all be banned from the U.K.?” he asked. “Can they put out a list of things you’re not allowed to say about Israel?”
He also pointed at the irony that the British government banned him for entering the country for saying that their government was “controlled by Israel.”
“Didn’t you just prove it?” he said.
His nephew, and left-wing political commentator, Piker criticized SXSW for not coming to his defense after being banned from entering the country. Piker said on a Twitch stream Monday that the festival removed his speaker page from the website.
“SXSW was a minor part of my trip to the U.K.,” Piker wrote on X Monday. “They totally didn’t defend me or Cenk at all, they’re actual f–king losers and I will never work with them for the rest of my life. If you bought a ticket expecting to see me you should demand a refund.”
Both SXSW London and the U.K.’s Parliament as the Home Department have issued statements following Uygur and Piker’s posts.
The Home Office explained that the decision was based “on the grounds that their presence in the U.K. may not be conducive to the public good,” adding, “decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on these grounds are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to U.K. society.”
You can watch the full segment in the video above.
