Stars from the music world, including Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, KT Tunstall and David Gray, are set to unite today in a lobby group which will fight for the interests of artists and fans.

The refusal to allow singer Yusuf Islam into the US on national security grounds was a “slap in the face of sanity”, a Muslim group said today.

Singer Cat Stevens and his daughter were escorted off a diverted transatlantic flight by FBI agents, it emerged today.