British Airways drops funding for Louis Theroux podcast after Bob Vylan episode

British Airways has dropped its funding for The Louis Theroux podcast following its episode featuring the frontman of Bob Vylan.

Also known as Pascal Robinson-Foster, Bobby Vylan, was interviewed by the documentary legend in the podcast released earlier this week.

This comes after months of controversy for the punk duo after Vylan led chants of ‘death, death to the IDF’ (Israel Defence Forces) during their performance at Glastonbury Festival which was live streamed in the BBC’s coverage.

While the group ended up being investigated by the police, the frontman told Theroux he was ‘not regretful’ of the chant and would ‘do it again tomorrow’.

Following the controversy, British Airways (BA) has paused advertising for the airline on the podcast as it says the content ‘breaches’ its sponsorship policy.

It was first reported by the Jewish News that the airline was pausing its sponsorship of the podcast produced by Theroux’s company, Mindhouse Productions.

“Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed,” a spokesperson later said in a statement to LADbible.

“We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters.

“We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur and we’re investigating how this happened.”

During the episode, Vylan said he had been taken aback by the massive reaction to the chant at Glastonbury.

“It wasn't like we came off stage, and everybody was like [gasps]. It's just normal,” the artist said, adding that he wanted an end to ‘the oppression that Palestinian people are facing’.

“I’m not regretful of it. I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays,” he continued of the chant.

“I’m not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced. It’s minimal.

“It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through. If that can be my contribution and if I can have my Palestinian friends and people that I meet from Palestine, that have had to flee, that have lost members in double digits of their family and they can say, yo, your chant, I love it. Or it gave me a breath of fresh air or whatever.”

Despite criticism and postponing of UK shows over ‘political pressure’, Bob Vylan’s album Humble As The Sun re-entered the charts over the summer and reached number one in the UK Hip Hop and R&B album charts.

Responding to BA’s pulling of funding, Vylan claimed on X: “Make no mistake, this is a scare tactic. I went on the podcast and as hard as the lobby groups and media tried, they couldn’t twist anything I said. So they have resorted to lobbying for Louis’ sponsorship to be pulled in an attempt to scare others out of giving me a platform.”

LADbible has contacted Mindhouse Productions for comment