Well, well, well. The Tories, Labour and even the SNP condemned Irish rap band Kneecap on Monday over a 2023 clip that seemed to show the trio calling for violence against politicians. Now, it transpires, the republican band is attempting to row back. The emergence of video footage – that appeared to show one of the group saying ‘The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP’ – sparked outrage across the UK. The hip-hop trio last night finally issued an apology to the families of Sir David Amess and Jo Cox, the two UK parliamentarians tragically killed in constituency surgery attacks over the last decade, by way of a Twitter post. But 18 months on from when the remarks were made, it all seems too little too late…
Taking to Twitter, the group wrote:
To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt. 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.
Er, right. Scotland Yard is reportedly looking into the clip – alongside footage from a 2024 gig in which one band member appeared to yell about proscribed terrorist organisations: ‘Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.’ Charming…
Alongside the leaders of various UK political parties, Amess’s daughter Katie also blasted the band for the ‘stupidity’ of their comments, saying she was ‘gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric’. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson has condemned the comments as ‘completely unacceptable’ and suggested the group’s government funding could be cut, Scotland’s First Minister called for the group to be banned from a Glasgow festival and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded Kneecap face prosecution over their remarks. The group may have offered up a semblance of an apology now but will it be enough to let them off the hook? Stay tuned…
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