Mumford & Sons Guitarist Leaves Band After Praising Right Wing Activist: I Want to ‘Speak My Mind’ About Politics

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Mumford & Sons banjo player and guitarist Winston Marshall is leaving the band following backlash he received for praising a right-wing activist — citing a desire to speak freely about political discourse.

In March, Marshall took to Twitter to praise a book by right-wing activist Andy Ngo, receiving backlash for the endorsement. 

The guitarist later took time away from the band and apologized in a since-deleted tweet, writing, “Over the past few days I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed.”

“I have offended not only a lot of people I don’t know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that I am truly sorry,” he added. “As a result of my actions I am taking time away from the band to examine my blindspots. For now, please know that I realize how my endorsements have the potential to be viewed as approvals of hateful, divisive behavior. I apologize, as this was not at all my intention.”

In a statement posted to Medium on Thursday, Marshall clarified that he only apologized because, “In the mania of the moment I was desperate to protect my bandmates.”

The guitarist is now walking back on that apology, claiming he “spent much time reflecting, reading and listening,” and concluded that, “my commenting on a book that documents the extreme Far-Left and their activities is in no way an endorsement of the equally repugnant Far-Right.”

“Though there’s nothing wrong with being conservative, when forced to politically label myself I flutter between ‘centrist,’ ‘liberal’ or the more honest ‘bit this, bit that,'” he wrote. “Being labeled erroneously just goes to show how binary political discourse has become. I had criticised the ‘Left,’ so I must be the ‘Right,’ or so their logic goes.”

Marshall claimed he received “tens of thousands of angry retweets and comments” following his endorsement of Ngo’s text, and insisted he was not expressing approval of the extreme right.

‘Thirteen members of my family were murdered in the concentration camps of the Holocaust,” he continued. “My Grandma, unlike her cousins, aunts and uncles, survived. She and I were close. My family knows the evils of fascism painfully well. To say the least. To call me ‘fascist’ was ludicrous beyond belief.”

Marshall explained that “the only way forward” for him would be to exit the Mumford & Sons to protect his band members, adding, “I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences.”

“I will continue my work with Hong Kong Link Up and I look forward to new creative projects as well as speaking and writing on a variety of issues, challenging as they may be,” he concluded.