Reggie Yates has apologised after making anti-Semitic remarks
BBC presenter Reggie Yates has been slammed after praising music stars for not being signed to ‘some random fat Jewish guy.’
Yates was praising urban artists such as Skepta and Stormzy, who have released songs under their own labels instead of going down the traditional route of signing with big companies.
He was speaking to DJ Chuckie Lothian for a podcast, which was posted on sharing service SoundCloud earlier this month.
But his remarks have now been labelled anti-Semitic by several figures, prompting a hasty apology from the 34-year-old.
Yates said on the podcast: ‘The thing that makes it great about this new generation of artists is that they ain’t signing to majors.
‘They’re independent, they’re not managed by some random fat Jewish guy from north-west London, they’re managed by their brethren.’
But he chairman of anti-Semitism charity Community Security Trust, Dave Rich, told the Sunday Telegraph his comments would be likely to cause great distress.
He added: ‘Even worse than any offence is the message Yates gives his audience by reinforcing an anti-Semitic stereotype.’
The London-born star has been in the industry since the age of eight, going on to work as a children’s presenter of CITV’s Diggit and CBBC’s Smile.
He then stepped up to present Top of the Pops, which lifted him into the mainstream and has led to a succession of other credits in the last 15 years.
Yates was praising urban artists such as Skepta (left) and Stormzy (right), who have released their music under their own labels instead of going down the traditional route of signing with big companies
Yates subsequently apologised, and said: ‘I am hugely apologetic for this flippant comment. It was not my intention to offend or reinforce stereotypes, but I’m aware that this could have been interpreted that way and for that I am also deeply sorry.
‘What I was actually trying to say was how proud I am of the new generation of artists making their success independently on their own terms and without giving away control or their rights to major labels
The BBC declined to comment.