Edinburgh’s the Banshee Labyrinth has accepted that it discriminated against Jewish comedian Philip Simon when it cancelled his 2025 Fringe performances at the venue shortly before last year’s Festival got underway.

The pub venue hosts shows taking place as part of PBH’s Free Fringe, though it was the venue’s management who decided to pull Simon’s 2025 show over social media posts he had made about the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Simon subsequently launched legal proceedings against the pub’s owner Morrison Bros Ltd, which was accused of violating the UK’s Equalities Act. The pub company initially disputed those allegations but conceded it had breached equality laws ahead of a planned court hearing this month.

According to the BBC, Simon’s lawyer David Welsh told the court yesterday that, “the defender conceded that the defender discriminated against the pursuer, contrary to the provisions of the Equalities Act”. Which means “the whole issue of liability has now been resolved” in Simon’s favour.

Shortly after cancelling Simon’s 2025 Fringe show in July last year, the Banshee Labyrinth rejected claims the comedian had been targeted simply because he was Jewish. It then highlighted a number of social media posts made by the comedian commenting on the situation in Gaza, some of which were collated by Chortle.

In an accompanying statement, the venue said, “We found that the views concerning the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine expressed by the performer are in significant conflict with our venue’s stance against the current Israeli government’s policy and actions”.

At the time, Simon said, “Anyone who knows me will know I have never expressed support for anything other than freeing the hostages and finding a way for peace. It is sad to think that these views could conflict with anyone who wants to see a lasting peace in Gaza and Israel”.

Responding to this week’s developments on social media, Simon says he’s “pleased” the venue “eventually admitted they discriminated against me and that this draws a line under part of a stressful ordeal that I’ve endured for over a year now”.

However, he criticises Morrison Bros Ltd for not conceding that the company had breached equality laws sooner.

He goes on, “it is a shame that Banshee Labyrinth decided to let this run all the way to just before the court hearing, rather than accepting any of our previous settlement offers that included an apology, antisemitism training and making a contribution to an antisemitism charity”.

“For them to have defended the case for months only to admit they discriminated at the very last minute”, he continues, “has made the whole situation even more upsetting”.

Simon is performing at the year’s Fringe as part of a show called ‘Jew-O-Rama’ at Bar 50 which is presented within the Laughing Horse Free Festival.