Rachel Riley apologises to Jedward after she made joke about singing duo as she criticised Wiley for his anti-Semitic rant
- Rachel Riley joked Wiley could have ended his career by dueting with Jedward
- The grime star had previously written a series of vile anti-Semitic tweets
- Rachel, who is Jewish, criticised the star who has been banned from Twitter
- But Jedward replied to the Countdown host, saying she was ‘spreading hate’
- She then deleted the tweet and apologised to the Irish former X Factor stars
Rachel Riley has apologised to Jedward after joking about their music while criticising Wiley’s anti-Semitic rant.
The Countdown presenter, who is Jewish, said the Grime star could have ended his career by performing with the Irish twins instead of making his vile remarks.
But the former X Factor stars hit back at her comments, saying she should not have targeted them.
Feud: Rachel Riley has apologised to Jedward after joking about their music while criticising Wiley’s anti-Semitic rant
She wrote: ‘He could have just done a duet with Jedward if he was that keen to end his career.
‘An unprompted, still going, public antisemitic breakdown is a bizarre route to go down.’
But Jedward replied: ‘You are a patron for a Center for Countering Digital Hate?
Hitting back: Jedward accused the Countdown presenter of ‘spreading hate’ by joking about their music
Vile remarks: Wiley, considered the Godfather of Grime, published a series of anti-Semitic tweets
‘And yet here you are spreading Hate!! As anti bullying ambassadors we don’t approve of this!’
Rachel promptly apologised and deleted her original tweet.
She then replied to the duo: ‘Genuinely didn’t mean any offence to you, was just a joke and you were the least grime people I could think of.’
She also tweeted the statement: ‘Apologies to Jedward, totally flippant joke about them not being particularly grime and no offence intended.
Standing down: Rachel deleted her initial joke about the twins after they criticised the Countdown star
‘Good meme below though, they’re nice boys and I didn’t think of the cumulative impact of jokes.’
Wiley, 41, had made a series of tweets, saying: ‘Jewish people you are not the reason I am wiley but I am the reason a lot of you have made money so shut up lol.’
Other Tweets included: ‘If you work for a company owned by 2 Jewish men and you challenge the Jewish community in anyway of course you will get fired.’
He made multiple shocking comments, including calling Jewish people ‘too touchy,’ and saying Israel ‘is not yours.’
He even challenged those who said they’d report him: ‘Get me arrested let me see what the charge is you cowards.’
Shocking: Wiley made a series of outlandish claims on his twitter feed on Saturday which resulted in him being banned from the site for seven days
Wiley has been given a seven-day ban from Twitter over a series of anti-Semitic tweets which are being reviewed by police – as a campaign calls on Instagram to shut down his account to prevent a ‘further outpouring of anti-Jewish venom’.
The musician was given an hours-long ban after tweeting a stream of comments on Friday evening, but was back online by Saturday morning.
However, after he resumed tweeting, he was given a seven-day ban from the social media platform.
He also posted a series of videos discussing the ban to his Instagram account. In one he said ‘crawl out from under your little rocks and defend your Jewish privilege’.
While the video of Wiley telling Jewish people to ‘crawl out from under your little rocks’ has been removed, a post showing a snip of a tweet of a conspiracy theory about Jews funding and creating the KKK remains.
Wiley is said to have been dropped by his management company over the tweets, but he claimed that he cut ties with them.
When questioned on Wiley’s comments by MailOnline, the Metropolitan Police referred to a statement on the LBTowerHamlets Twitter feed which says, ‘the relevant material is being assessed’.
Appalling: Wiley posted a series of videos discussing the ban to his Instagram account, and in one he said: ‘Crawl out from under your little rocks and defend your Jewish privilege