Protesters scupper comic’s free speech gig at Goldsmiths… because they dislike her views

Defiant: Kate Smurthwaite did the show at Goldsmiths College despite only six people turning up
Rex

A comedian has accused a group who oppose her views of sabotaging her latest gig.

Kate Smurthwaite, who has been a panellist on Question Time, was due to perform The Wrong Kind Of Feminist, a show about free speech, at Goldsmiths College.

A planned gig at the college last year was cancelled after protests from the feminist society over Smurthwaite’s opposition to full legalisation of the sex industry and despite all the free tickets to last Wednesday’s gig booked online, only six people turned up.

Smurthwaite, 40, who went ahead with the show, said many email addresses used to book tickets were under apparently fake names.

Writing on Twitter about the event, which was organised to raise money for Refugee Action with donations at the door, she said: “We fully booked out overnight and I spent a lot of the last couple of days telling people I was sorry there was no more room… Well it turned out that the tickets had been reserved in bulk by people using spurious email addresses to make a point by then not showing up.”

Someone claiming to speak for the group that scuppered the show posted on Twitter under the name @NotAnExitM8, stating: “This was a form of peaceful protest against someone who’s [sic] views we find abhorrent.

“She has frequently aired her transphobic, whorephobic, Islamophobic and bigoted views, and has made a career from this bigotry.”

Ms Smurthwaite said: “To close someone down because of a disagreement, especially when it’s a benefit gig, is infuriating and horrifying. I talk about freedom of speech in the show and if they had a problem with it they could have come and engaged with it.”

In response to accusations of bigotry, she said: “Every time this comes up I say, ‘Send me an example.’ Their example of Islamophobia is when I have quoted The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

“In terms of the sex industry, I have a view shared by charities and a lot of people who have left the industry. And they always say ‘transphobia’, but there is not one single thing anyone can show me that I am even supposed to have said — I’ve campaigned for years for trans rights. I think people just make a list of things that end in ‘phobic’.”

After the show, Smurthwaite set up a JustGiving page for Refugee Action to make up for the lost donations, with a target of raising £500. By yesterday, it had raised more than £1,600.

Asked to comment, @NotAnExitM8 stated: “We have absolutely no desire to speak to the press.”

The Goldsmiths Student Union said previous cancellations of Smurthwaite’s gigs were not examples of “no platforming”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in