10 Downing Street reject Kneecap’s “half-hearted” statement on violence and MPs: “They should apologise”

10 Downing Street have rejected Kneecap‘s statement on violence and MPs, calling it “half-hearted” and saying “they should apologise”.

• READ MORE: Kneecap on the cover – giving peace, protest and partying a chance

Late last night (April 28), Kneecap took to X/Twitter to share a statement denying their alleged support of Hamas, Hezbollah and promoting violence against MPs, saying: “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,” they continued. “An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.”

It followed the Irish rap trio facing calls from politicians to remove them from several upcoming festival dates – including Glastonbury and TRNSMT – after it was revealed earlier this week that counter-terror police are assessing footage from the band’s London show last November.

Footage from that show appears to depict a member of Kneecap yelling out “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, while displaying a Hezbollah flag. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are proscribed terror organisations, as listed by the UK government – it is also an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 to “invite support for a proscribed organisation”.

KNEECAP STATEMENT:

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… pic.twitter.com/qZht5532Zf

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 28, 2025

Reports then revealed that police have since begun assessing a second video from one of their gigs, which purportedly shows the group calling for the death of Conservative MPs. In response, Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead David Taylor and Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney have made public calls for the removal of Kneecap from several summer festival performances.

The Jo Cox foundation, launched in recognition of the Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016, also shared a statement on X/Twitter condemning the band, writing that they had “clearly” crossed a line “from political expression to inciting violence”.

Similarly, the daughter of late Conservative MP David Amess, who was murdered in 2021, told the BBC she was “gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric”, adding that the band should make apologies to her “and every other person that has been offended by this”.

Today (April 29) 10 Downing Street have responded to Kneecap’s statement, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying: “They should apologise. I think you have seen what they have said, I think it is half-hearted,” per LBC.

They go on to say: “We completely reject in the strongest possible terms the comments that they’ve made, particularly in relation to MPs and intimidation as well as obviously the situation in the Middle East.

“It’s right that the police are looking into these videos.”

However, Kneecap did apologise in their initial statement, directly addressing the families of Cox and Amess, saying: “We send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt.”

Elsewhere in their recent address, Kneecap went on to label the “distortion” of their messages as “absurd” and “a transparent effort to detail the real conversation”. Instead, they suggest that “real anger and outrage should be directed towards” the “powerful in Britain” who have “abetted slaughter and famine,” claiming “the British government continues to supply arms to Israel, even after the scores of NHS doctors warned Keir Starmer in August that children were being systematically executed with sniper shots to the head.”

Doubling down on their stance, they wrote: “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 at our gigs. No smear campaign will change that.”

“The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power. Shame on them,” they wrote to end their address.

To their point on being anti-violence, the group’s Mo Chara said the following in their NME The Cover story in June 2024: “Obviously I can’t speak for what happened before me,” sharing his sympathy for what past generations of Irishmen went through. “But we don’t support violence as that doesn’t make any sense any more.”

KNEECAP STATEMENT:

Since our statements at Coachella — exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people — we have faced a coordinated smear campaign.

For over a year, we have used our shows to call out the British and Irish governments' complicity in war crimes.… pic.twitter.com/mBojb5QBOP

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 25, 2025

In response to news of the counter-terrorism investigation, Kneecap shared a post on X of a graphic which read, “18 Months Of Genocide Footage Not Under Investigation By UK Counter-Terror Police”, with the caption “some facts.”

An anti-Tory sentiment also emerged at Kneecap’s controversial sets at Coachella this month, the first of which saw them leading the crowd in a chant of “Maggie’s in a box”, referring to the late Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Coachella performances led to calls from Sharon Osbourne to revoke their working visas. The two sets at the festival also reportedly left organisers “blindsided” due to their overtly political nature, including showing pro-Palestine projections on the screen behind them and encouraging the audience to chant “Free, Free Palestine”.

Kneecap have since called the controversy “a coordinated smear campaign” against their efforts in “exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people”.

“For over a year, we have used our shows to call out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in war crimes. The recent attacks against us, largely emanating from the US, are based on deliberate distortions and falsehoods,” they said, adding that they are “taking action against several of these malicious efforts”.

“The reason Kneecap is being targeted is simple — we are telling the truth, and our audience is growing,” the statement read. “Those attacking us want to silence criticism of a mass slaughter. They weaponize false accusations of antisemitism to distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide,” bringing up “massive numbers of Jewish people” who are “outraged by this genocide just as we are”. “What we care about is that governments of the countries we perform in are enabling some of the most horrific crimes of our lifetimes — and we will not stay silent. No media spin will change this,” they wrote.

At time of writing, the band’s appearances at Glastonbury, TRNSMT and other European festivals remain intact. Elsewhere yesterday, their huge Belfast show with Fontaines D.C. had sold out in just over half an hour, despite calls from the DUP to have it axed.

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