Right wing gloats over a Misan Harriman exit - which he was always planning

‘Southbank chief in row over ‘antisemitic’ posts to stand down,’ ran a headline in Wednesday’s Times, as one of the papers which had run a campaign to cancel Misan Harriman appeared to celebrate his departure.

The Times, along with the Telegraph, Reform’s Robert Jenrick and, sadly, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, had been involved in a push to remove Harriman as chair of the London arts centre, using a distortion of his words in a bid to oust him.

The Telegraph, normally a sworn enemy of cancel culture, had attacked Harriman for sharing a view on social media that the Golders Green attack in April this year was Islamophobic as well as anti-semitic, since a third victim on the same day was Muslim – which was objectively true. Others then rowed in.

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Rats in a Sack

Now the Times has reported that “the chairman of the Southbank Centre who was engulfed by an antisemitism row last month has confirmed that he will step down in autumn” – burying deep in its own article that Harriman had always planned to step aside once his second term had elapsed.

He confirmed in a social media post that he would not continue as chair beyond autumn, saying: “It’s semi-public knowledge that my term is coming to an end anyway… I had decided way before this madness that I was going to do two terms.

“It takes a long time to find whoever the next chair will be, and that process will begin at some point, and I’ll update you more on exact dates and timelines probably in autumn.” He called the Southbank Centre, which is celebrating its 75th year in 2026, “a sacred 11 acres” and said he was “still very proud to be chair”.

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Rats in a Sack

But that didn’t stop the Times running the headline, linking it directly to the confected outrage, not the Daily Telegraph from reporting his departure under the heading ‘Southbank chief to stand down after row over ‘anti-Semitic’ posts’ – before, oddly, changing it online to just ‘Southbank chief to stand down’.

Both papers, once again, failed to mention in their lengthy reports Harriman’s first response to the Golders Green attack. At the time he co-posted on Instagram, unambiguously: “Our thoughts are with all those affected by the appalling stabbings in Golders Green. Antisemitism has no place in our society and we send our solidarity to the Jewish community. We must unite to stop all racist attacks.”

Meanwhile, a comment on one of the Telegraph’s previous articles about Harriman, which says “let mossad deal with him” has been on its site for weeks now, liked by 10 other subscribers and not a single administrator has thought it necessary to remove it.