POLICE are set to review footage from Glastonbury Festival after a rap-punk duo led anti-Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chants on the West Holts Stage on Saturday (June 28).

BBC coverage of the festival showed Bobby Vylan of the Ipswich-based duo Bob Vylan leading chants of “death, death to the IDF”, a move that has garnered strong criticism online.

The BBC has since said it should have cut away from a live broadcast of the band’s performance, saying they “regret” that they did not pull the stream.

They said the comments were “antisemitic” and “utterly unacceptable”.

This comes after the broadcast regulator Ofcom said the BBC has “questions to answer” and Prime Minister Kier Starmer described the chanting as “appalling hate speech”.

Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis said the chants very much crossed a line.

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She added: “We are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”

Now, Avon and Somerset Police have said they are aware of comments made and will review the footage to see if any offences were committed that require a criminal investigation.

Bob Vylan have reportedly since been dropped by reps United Talent Agency, and in a Facebook post, the frontman Bobby Vylan said: “I said what I said.”

The lengthy post, which can be viewed here, said: “Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.”

It went on to say: “Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change.

“Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered.”

Somerset County Conservatives are among those calling for steps to be taken by the police so acts at the festival understand that “calling for the death of any individual or group of people is illegal and will not be tolerated.”

“The Somerset Conservative group are horrified by the on-stage chants made by the act Bob Vylan at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday,” they said in a statement.

They added: “The festival has always had a political tone, but today we have seen this go far beyond the realms of politics with the use of threatening and inflammatory language encouraging the crowd to call for ‘Death to the IDF’ and the use of the antisemitic trope ‘From the river to the sea…’

“We have a commitment to a duty of care for everyone in Somerset, including our Jewish residents and visitors, and recognise that the language used by this act may have made Jews in Somerset and at the festival feel deeply uncomfortable or unsafe.

“We hope that Avon and Somerset Police will be quick to complete their review of the performance footage and believe that steps should be taken to ensure that acts performing at Glastonbury understand that hate speech and calling for the death of any individual or group of people is illegal and will not be tolerated.”

The performance has since been removed from iPlayer and the BBC said it has no plans to make the performance available on demand.