The UK government announced on Friday that the MBE awarded to grime pioneer Wiley in 2018 has been revoked for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
The Honours Forfeiture Committee began reviewing the rapper's honour following a complaint by the Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2020. Wiley made a number of antisemitic statements during a social media meltdown in July of that year.
“Antisemites like Wiley must understand that we will work tirelessly to hold them to account", says Stephen Silverman, Director Of Investigations And Enforcement at the Campaign Against Antisemitism. "For four years, we have worked to ensure that Wiley faces ruinous consequences for his unhinged antisemitic tirade, for which he has shown no remorse. Today’s decision is a vindication of that effort".
“We commend the Honours Forfeiture Committee for using its powers to make clear that anti-Jewish racists cannot be role models in our society and will be stripped of their honours", he adds. "Receiving an honour is not a one-time thing: it carries an ongoing responsibility to set an example to others".
Wiley - real name Richard Cowie - was included in the UK's New Year's Honours List in 2018, receiving the Member Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire award for his services to music. At the time he said “it feels like the school grade I wanted and didn’t get but now I’m finally there".
In July 2020, Wiley was widely condemned for a long series of social media posts in which he made a number of antisemitic statements. He subsequently apologised in an interview with Sky News.
His social media rant had started with criticism of the music industry, and was possibly in part prompted by a falling out with his then manager John Wolff, who is Jewish. Wolff initially expressed concern about his client as the social media tirade was under way, but later confirmed he had cut ties with the rapper. Wiley responded in an Instagram post stating, “I cut ties with you, you fool. That’s why we’re here”.
In the Sky News interview, Wiley said “my comments should not have been directed to all jews or Jewish people. I want to apologise for generalising, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at as antisemitic”.
However, he was subsequently criticised for failing to formally retract many of the more problematic things he had tweeted.
The following year more antisemitic content appeared on a Twitter account set up under his name. He was also charged with assault and burglary over an alleged break-in that took place that year. He pleaded guilty to assault and criminal damage last June.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism has also pursued legal proceedings against the rapper, which in part delayed the process of reviewing and revoking his MBE.
There are various reasons why the Honours Forfeiture Committee might revoke an honour, including being found guilty of a criminal offence, being censured by or disbarred from a professional body, or more generally bringing the honours system into disrepute.
Of the three people who had honours revoked on Friday, two fell in that more general category. Alongside Wiley, it was announced that former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has lost her CBE. She played a key role in the Post Office's Horizon scandal that is widely seen as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in UK history, and which came to much wider attention recently thanks to an ITV dramatisation.