Kneecap’s Eden Project gig cancelled amid row over ‘kill MPs’ comments
A performance by Belfast rap trio Kneecap at the Eden Project has been cancelled.
It comes after a row in which one of the group appeared to call for Tory MPs to be killed and another appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” in historical footage of a gig.
A spokesperson for Eden Sessions, which organises the gigs at the Cornwall venue, said: “Eden Sessions Limited announced today that the Kneecap show at Eden Project scheduled for July 4, 2025 has been cancelled.
“Ticket purchasers will be contacted directly and will be fully refunded.
“The refund process will commence from Wednesday, April 30 2025. Refunds will be processed against the original payment cards used. Purchasers should allow six working days for funds to be received into their accounts.”
On Monday, the band apologised to the families of murdered MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox after footage emerged of one of its members appearing to say “kill your local MP”.
But Katie Amess, daughter of Sir David, dismissed their apology, accusing them of “deflection and excuses and gaslighting”.
Why are Kneecap controversial?
In a statement posted on Instagram, the group, comprising Liam Og O Hannaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, said they “reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual.
“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,” they added.
The footage had been “exploited and weaponised,” they said.
Their statement didn’t impress Ms Amess, however, who accused them of “gaslighting”, saying their comments were “absurd” and “not an apology”.
“They don’t understand what they’re talking about, they obviously aren’t educated enough in what they’re speaking about to think that they can use those excuses and everybody will be like, ‘oh, never mind, let’s move on to something else’. They haven’t taken any accountability.
“These words that they are using are extremely dangerous and they have not acknowledged that.
But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman called the band’s statement “half-hearted” and urged them to make a fuller apology.
He said Downing Street “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.”
Mrs Badenoch said she thought they were apologising “because they realise that people don’t like the kind of things that they’ve been saying” and are “worried they’re going to lose their slot at Glastonbury”.
Jo Cox was murdered in 2016. Pic: PA
Mrs Badenoch blocked a £14,250 funding award for the group while she was business secretary, only for the money to be handed over in November last year after the new UK government conceded withholding the money had been unlawful.
Katie Amess, the daughter of Sir David Amess, told the UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee, she was happy to meet the band, as “I’m sure they’ve never met a victim of such a heinous crime, and so they’re not thinking it through.
“If they were to meet with me and to see and to hear the pain and the torture and the torment that I go through every day, I’m sure they would feel terribly guilty.”
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The Metropolitan Police are assessing footage from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member of the group saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”, along with a video clip from a different concert in November 2024 in which a member of the band appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” – groups which are banned as terrorist organisations in the UK.
In Monday’s statement, Kneecap insisted they have “never supported” Hamas or Hezbollah.
Ministers also put pressure on the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival over the band’s inclusion in this year’s line-up.
In the Commons, security minister Dan Jarvis said ministers “would urge organisers of the Glastonbury Festival to think very carefully about who is invited to perform there later this year”.
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