Billy Bragg warns Ed Sheeran will become ‘pariah’ if he doesn’t axe tour over Macklemore saga: ‘Swallow pride and CANCEL!’

He added: “It could make him a pariah of sorts. It will be a shame if that happens.”

Mr Bragg, 68, was unequivocal about what he thinks Mr Sheeran ought to do next. “If I was Ed, I’d swallow my pride, cancel the tour, and say ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not having billionaires decide what can and cannot be said at my gigs’,” he said.

The activist musician argued that the dispute boils down to artistic freedom. “Fundamentally, it’s about the right to express your opinion,” he added to ITV News.

The controversy erupted on September 4 when Macklemore, real name Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, addressed the crowd at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium during Sheeran’s Loop Tour.

“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” the 43-year-old rapper told the audience.

He also performed his track Hind’s Hall, which criticises Israel’s military operations in Gaza, accompanied by footage of Gaza on screen.

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Jewish groups and figures, including Pink, condemned the remarks, and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft subsequently pushed for the rapper’s dismissal, describing the speech as “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.

Mr Sheeran, 35, maintained he was “not complicit”, insisting the decision had been taken by promoter Messina Touring Group after venues threatened cancellations.

The fallout has been off the scale, with every one of Sheeran’s support acts – Finneas, Lukas Graham, Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe, and others – withdrawing from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.

Mr Bragg isn’t the only critical fellow musician to condemn Mr Sheeran. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd branded the Lego House hitmaker a “little p***k”, whilst Massive Attack issued a pointed statement: “‘Neutrality’ in the face of the slaughter of more than 20,000 children can never be neutrality.”

Former support acts BIIRD and Myles Smith have likewise voiced their backing for the rapper.

Meanwhile, on social media, Mr Sheeran has shed more than 200,000 Instagram followers since the row began. Macklemore, by contrast, has gained 1.6 million.

In his statement earlier this week, Mr Sheeran defended his decision to stay silent on the conflict publicly. “I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed,” he said. “If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change.”

He also stressed that he would not abandon touring crew and fans who had already made plans, nor the musicians who depend on him for their livelihood.

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Behind the scenes, however, Mr Sheeran appears to have been working to address the humanitarian crisis.

According to Mr Kraft, the singer contacted him before Macklemore’s public challenge and asked the stadium owner to commit $2 million towards relief efforts in the region. Mr Kraft says he agreed, pledging to match the singer’s own $2 million donation.

Macklemore has confirmed he will donate the entirety of his $1 million earnings from the tour to six organisations working to support Palestinians.

Mr Sheeran’s next scheduled performance is on Saturday, September 19, at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, but the viability of the remaining dates is in serious doubt given the departure of his entire backing band and all support acts.

The singer has yet to respond to the wave of criticism from Mr Bragg, Mr Waters and Massive Attack, or to address the mass walkout by his fellow musicians.

Mr Bragg also accused Mr Kraft of attempting to “intimidate an artist into silence”, adding: “That seldom works.”