Did Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa withdraw from Eurovision over Gaza?
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has withdrawn from a role in the Eurovision Song Contest after Israel qualified.
The Rwandan-Scottish actor — now known to millions as the Fifteenth Doctor in Doctor Who — had been set to announce the UK’s jury points in Saturday’s grand final.
But on Thursday night, just minutes after Israel was confirmed as a finalist, the BBC released this curious statement:
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.”
No further explanation was given. No replacement statement from Gatwa himself. Just silence.
We’re more than halfway there! Thanks to amazing supporters, we’ve raised £36 toward this month’s £50 goal to fund independent research and reporting.
If you value fearless political journalism that holds the powerful to account, please chip in today. Even £2 helps keep Vox Political running strong.
👉 Support us here: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
Social media connected the dots after the BBC failed to
Almost immediately, observers online made the connection between Gatwa’s exit and Israel’s qualification — despite mounting calls for the country to be excluded over its brutal war on Gaza, where more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children.
To many anti-genocide campaigners, it looked like a protest that they could wholeheartedly support.
And pro-Israel accounts on the social media met it with predictable outrage. Some accused Gatwa of “politicising entertainment.” Others demanded the BBC reprimand or replace him permanently.
None of this has been confirmed.
Gatwa has not issued a public statement.
The BBC has kept quiet beyond its vague announcement.
But it is telling how quickly both sides assumed politics were involved — and how revealing that assumption is.
Eurovision is already political — just not evenly
The idea that Eurovision is “apolitical” is risible.
This is a show that regularly trades in national identity, political symbolism, and cultural diplomacy.
Russia was banned from Eurovision 2022 for its invasion of Ukraine — a move the BBC and other broadcasters loudly supported.
Yet Israel, accused by international law experts, human rights NGOs, and even the UN of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, remains in the competition with no pushback from the organisers or major broadcasters.
Eurovision has become, like most global stages, a battlefield for public conscience.
This year, cities across Europe have seen protests demanding Israel’s exclusion.
Activists have called on artists to boycott.
In Sweden, stage invaders disrupted Israel’s semi-final performance.
The contest’s so-called “safe space for unity” has become a platform of glaring double standards.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Whether Gatwa intended it or not, the message is loud and clear
Let’s be clear: we don’t know why Ncuti Gatwa pulled out.
It may have been political.
It may have been personal.
It may – as one online commenter suggested – have been a cold, “and the internet is now writing political statement fan-fiction”.
But what’s happened since is deeply revealing. A seemingly small personnel change — a spokesperson swap — has opened a Pandora’s box of questions the BBC and Eurovision authorities don’t want to answer:
-
Why is Israel still in the contest while Gaza burns?
-
Why is silence or neutrality from artists and broadcasters treated as complicity?
-
And why are those who dare to even appear to challenge Israel met with coordinated backlash?
Gatwa’s quiet absence may be the loudest political statement of Eurovision 2025.
Whether or not he intended it, the public has read it that way — and that’s what matters.
We’re more than halfway there! Thanks to amazing supporters, we’ve raised £36 toward this month’s £50 goal to fund independent research and reporting.
Let’s close the gap this week! Help us hit £50 and power the next investigation.
If you value fearless political journalism that holds the powerful to account, please chip in today. Even £2 helps keep Vox Political running strong.
👉 Support us here: https://ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
The stage is already political.
The BBC’s silence is political.
And the backlash to mere speculation shows just how desperate the establishment is to avoid the truth: support for Israel is no longer a neutral position — and neither is ignoring its crimes.
If Gatwa has withdrawn in protest, he has done something most celebrities fear to do: take a stand.
And if he just had a schedule clash or the flu?
Well, then the world really is writing protest fan-fiction because people are that desperate for someone — anyone — in the public eye to speak out.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Is this article trying to dictate an opinion? firstly, Genocide? 99% of the Gaza population is alive. Simple maths show that 50,000 dead, half of which are Hamas, is 1% of the population. second: Children? is a 17 year old a child? what about when he’s holding an AK47? You don’t really know how many children were really killed. It’s a war Gaza started, and war is ugly, very. Is there such a thing as a nice war? Remember, Gaza can stop this anytime. They just need to release the hostages.
This comment reflects a dangerously misinformed and dehumanising perspective. Let’s break it down:
1. “It’s not genocide because only 1% of the population has died”?
That’s factually and morally wrong. Genocide is not defined by a percentage of the population killed. Under the UN Genocide Convention, genocide includes any acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group — including:
killing members of the group
causing serious bodily or mental harm
deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group
Even if “only” 1% of Gaza’s population has been killed (and that’s a grotesque way to frame mass death), this is still tens of thousands of people, including at least 14,000 children, according to reputable sources like the Gaza Health Ministry, which the UN and other international organisations use as their basis.
Historic genocides — including those in Bosnia and Rwanda — involved death tolls that represented smaller or similarly small fractions of the total population, but were still legally defined as genocides because of the intent and systematic nature of the violence.
2. “Half the dead are Hamas fighters” — according to whom?
This is an unsubstantiated claim. Israel itself has failed to provide credible breakdowns to support this figure, and independent observers — including UN agencies and human rights groups — have repeatedly emphasised that the majority of the dead are civilians. This includes women, children, elderly people, journalists, and aid workers. The bombing of hospitals, schools, refugee camps and safe zones cannot be justified under international law.
If you accept that even 14,000 children have been killed (and no serious authority denies this), how can that be anything but a war crime?
3. “Children with AK47s” — a classic dehumanisation tactic
The idea that a 17-year-old Palestinian is automatically a “combatant” if he’s male or could be armed is exactly how state violence justifies indiscriminate killing. Children are children under international law — under 18 — regardless of what they’re holding, and using that as a pretext for their deaths is deeply unethical.
4. “Gaza started the war” — a false framing
The blockade and occupation of Gaza have been ongoing for 17 years. Israel controls Gaza’s airspace, borders, and sea. Occupation is a form of structural violence that predates October 7, 2023, and is widely recognised as illegal under international law. That does not excuse Hamas’ atrocities, but collective punishment of a civilian population is also a war crime.
5. “Gaza can stop the war anytime by releasing hostages” — moral blackmail
Demanding that 2.3 million people — half of them children — be bombed and starved until a separate armed group releases hostages is collective punishment, prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. Civilians are not bargaining chips. This kind of rhetoric implies that Palestinian lives are conditional on Israeli terms, which is an utterly unacceptable framework for any just or moral peace.
Good piece.