Andreas Malm Must Not Be Banned From the UK

The Home Office’s decision to block the leading climate scholar and Palestine advocate Andreas Malm from entering the UK is a deeply disturbing assault on freedom of expression.

Malm was due to visit London this week to speak at an event hosted by Tribune magazine, as well as attending an academic conference and appearing on the BBC. The Home Office has revoked his travel authorisation, claiming that his ‘presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good.’

This was the same justification used to bar the commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur from the country by Keir Starmer’s government earlier this year. Andy Burnham must stop these unprecedented attacks on free speech, from the arrest of thousands of peaceful protesters to the censorship of authors and academics who criticise Israel.

Malm is a thinker of inestimable importance. His books have won international awards, galvanised countless people to take action for environmental justice and Palestinian rights, and inspired a major Hollywood film. He travels regularly to Britain to lecture at universities including Oxford, King’s College London and Cambridge. The notion that his presence harms ‘the public good’ is ludicrous. It is the Home Office’s act of political censorship that harms the public good, undermining the basic principles of a free and democratic society.

We the undersigned are aware that Malm has made statements that some consider controversial. The importance of freedom of speech lies precisely in the opportunity to hear unpopular as well as popular perspectives and to subject them to free and fearless discussion. We urge Andy Burnham to reverse this ban immediately and allow Malm into the country. The government must stop treating writers as terrorists and lift the ban on Palestine Action which has put the UK on a path to authoritarianism.

Naomi Klein

Cornel West

Amitav Ghosh

Sally Rooney

Brian Eno

Adam Tooze

Amia Srinivasan

Slavoj Žižek 

Judith Butler 

Rachel Kushner

Nancy Fraser

David Harvey

Ilan Pappe

Rashid Khalidi

Avi Shlaim 

John Mearsheimer 

Yanis Varoufakis 

Chris Hedges

Wendy Brown

Tariq Ali

Terry Eagleton

Samuel Moyn

Lynne Segal 

George Monbiot

China Mieville 

Norman Finkelstein

Priyamvada Gopal 

Anton Jäger

Catherine Hall

Clive Lewis 

Apsana Begum 

Jeremy Corbyn 

Zarah Sultana

Louise Regan

Owen Jones

Grace Blakeley

Peter Hallward 

Nathan Thrall 

Alfred de Zayas

Sara Roy

Natasha Lennard 

Jo Littler

Catriona McKinnon

Mandy Merck

Catherine Rottenberg

Joe Sacco

Monique Roffey

Nika Dubrovsky

Denise Riley

Asif Kapadia