A “conspiracy theory” film about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not be screened at Glastonbury following a complaint by a leading Jewish group.
Oh, Jeremy Corbyn… The Big Lie, was set to be shown on Sunday at the festival.
According to the website of producer Platform Films, the “feature-length documentary film explores a dark and murky story of political deceit and outrageous antisemitic smears”.
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Marie van der Zyl, president of the Jewish communal organisation the Board of Deputies, wrote to the festival organisers and said it would be “profoundly sinister” for it to be shown at the event.
She said she understood the film “seeks to suggest that organisations such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, of which I am the president, somehow helped to ‘orchestrate’ Jeremy Corbyn’s downfall as Labour Party leader”.
Announcing the cancellation of the screening, a Glastonbury Festival statement said it believed organisers booked the film in “good faith, in the hope of provoking political debate”.
“It’s become clear that it is not appropriate for us to screen it at the festival. Glastonbury is about unity and not division, and we stand against all forms of discrimination.”
Among those who contributed to the documentary were writer Jackie Walker and filmmaker Ken Loach.
Ms Walker was suspended from Labour for alleged antisemitic comments while Mr Corbyn was in charge.
Mr Loach was removed from the party in 2021 because he would “not disown those already expelled”.
Andrew Murray, who was an adviser to Mr Corbyn, also contributed to the documentary.
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Mr Corbyn was removed from Labour’s parliamentary party group for his reaction to an Equality and Human Rights Commission report into the party under his leadership that found Labour had broken the law with the way it treated antisemitism complaints.
He said the scale of the problem was “overstated”.
Mr Corbyn has since been prevented from standing as a Labour MP at the next election.
In the letter sent by Ms van der Zyl, she said Glastonbury organisers’ decision to show the film was “worrying”.
“Your festival is one of the most successful festivals in the UK,” she wrote.
“It seems profoundly sinister for it to be providing a platform to a film which clearly seeks to indoctrinate people into believing a conspiracy theory effectively aimed at Jewish organisations.
“We would request that you not allow your festival to be hijacked by those seeking to promote hatred with no basis in fact, in the same way as we would hope that your festival would not screen films seeking to promote other conspiracy theories, such as anti-vaccination, 9/11 truthers or chemtrails.”
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The Board of Deputies later said it was “pleased” that Glastonbury had cancelled the screening.
Platform Films has been approached for comment.
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