Grovelling BBC admit they should have pulled Bob Vylan’s 'deeply offensive' Glastonbury chant

The BBC have said they "should have pulled" the live stream of Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance. During their set on the West Holts stage, Bobby Vylan lead a crowd to chant 'Death to the IDF'.

The corporation admitted the set aired "utterly unacceptable” and “antisemitic sentiments". The BBC have now said in a statement: "Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC’s output but one performance within our live streams included comments that were deeply offensive.

"The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance. The performance was part of a live stream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer.

"The judgement on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines. In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.

"In light of this weekend, we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air."

During the set, which aired on Saturday, Bobby Vylan led a string of chants. The set was uploaded to iPlayer and remained on the site for more than five hours before it was eventually being removed by the BBC.

Alongside the stream, the corporation issued a warning about "very strong and discriminatory language" before it was later decided that the set would not be available to watch on demand.

It comes as Ofcom issued a warning to the BBC. An Ofcom spokesperson said: "We are very concerned about the live stream of this performance, and the BBC clearly has questions to answer.

"We have been speaking to the BBC over the weekend and we are obtaining further information as a matter of urgency, including what procedures were in place to ensure compliance with its own editorial guidelines."

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.