Kneecap has responded to the outrage at their comments and apologised to the families of murdered MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox.
The statement posted on X, external follows the emergence of footage of the group at a concert in November 2023, where one of the band members appears to say: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The footage is being assessed by counter-terrorism police and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for prosecution.
Ban
It comes as First Minister John Swinney has backed calls for rap group Kneecap to be axed from Scotland’s TRNSMT music festival.
Organisers have been urged to drop the Belfast trio over footage from a 2023 gig that appeared to show a band member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Swinney told BBC Scotland the alleged comments “crossed a line” and were unacceptable.
David Taylor MP wrote to Glastonbury to get them removed from the festival’s line-up.
Statement
They posted a statement, writing:
They want you to believe words are more harmful than genocide.
Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria.
Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history.
We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.
This distortion is not only absurd – it is a transparent effort to derail the real conversation.
All two million Palestinian people in Gaza are currently being starved to death by Israel.
At least 20,000 children in Gaza have been killed. The British government continues to supply arms to Israel, even after scores of NHS doctors warned Keir Starmer in August that children were being systematically executed with sniper shots to the head.
Instead of defending innocent people or the principles of international law, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine.
This is where real anger and outrage should be directed towards.
To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt.
Kneecap’s message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs.
No smear campaign will change that.
Suddenly, days after calling out the US administration at Coachella to applause and solidarity, there is an avalanche of outrage and condemnation by the political classes of Britain.
The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power.
Shame on them.
Reactions
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However, there were a lot of people who didn’t agree with Kneecap.
Related: Sharon Osbourne demands Irish group deported over Palestine stunt – reactions
