Greta Thunberg, Tracey Emin and Gary Lineker are among more than 245 signatories of an open letter defending Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman, following what they describe as a “dishonest smear campaign” by media outlets. The letter argues that Harriman has been unfairly targeted for comments that critics say promoted “conspiracies” about the Golders Green attack and compared Reform voters to Nazis.
Harriman, who has chaired the Southbank Centre’s board of governors since 2021, faced criticism after sharing a social media post that questioned the amount of media coverage given to the Muslim victim of the Golders Green attack, Ishmail Hussein. Critics accused him of minimising the antisemitic nature of the attack. Labour MP David Taylor called the posts “incredibly inappropriate for the chair of a charity board”.
The controversy escalated when Harriman quoted Susan Sontag in a video discussing Reform UK’s local election results, saying her comments about the Holocaust were “really topical”. The Telegraph ran a headline stating: “Southbank Centre chief ‘compares Reform victory to Holocaust’”. Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, questioned how election results could be compared to the Holocaust, while Reform MP Robert Jenrick called for Harriman’s removal, branding him a “crass moron”.
The open letter, also signed by Riz Ahmed, David Oyelowo and several Jewish cultural figures, asserts that the campaign against Harriman is “intended to send a message to others that if they speak out, they will be subject to harassment and threats”. It adds that “trying to silence responsible critics of Israel by smearing them as antisemitic does not protect Britain’s Jewish community”.
Harriman told the Guardian: “We have reached the point where truth itself is being crushed by the very institutions that are supposed to uphold it. I will never whisper about the oppressed.” The letter follows a campaign by 53,000 people to lobby the press regulator Ipso about the coverage, more than double the number who complained about Jeremy Clarkson’s 2022 column targeting the Duchess of Sussex.
A separate letter from parliamentarians, including Labour MPs John McDonnell and Naz Shah, has been sent to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, expressing concern over attempts to “mischaracterise” and “silence” Harriman. The signatories warn against a “rising tendency to pressure institutions and public bodies to distance themselves from individuals who engage in legitimate public discourse”.
