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Kneecap’s Glastonbury festival performance next Saturday is not “appropriate”, Keir Starmer has said.
Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh appeared in court on Wednesday after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah and saying “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in November last year.
In an interview with the Sun, the prime minister was asked if he thought the trio should perform at Glastonbury. “No, I don’t, and I think we need to come down really clearly on this,” Starmer said. “This is about the threats that shouldn’t be made, I won’t say too much because there’s a court case on, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
Earlier on Saturday the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said she thought the BBC “should not be showing” Kneecap’s performance at the festival.
In a post on X, accompanied by an article from the Times that claimed the BBC had not banned the group, Badenoch said: “The BBC should not be showing Kneecap propaganda. One Kneecap band member is currently on bail, charged under the Terrorism Act.
“As a publicly funded platform, the BBC should not be rewarding extremism.”
Badenoch previously called for the group to be banned from Glastonbury. Last year Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK government in Belfast high court after Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was a minister in the previous government.
A BBC spokesperson said: “As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers.
“Whilst the BBC doesn’t ban artists, our plans will ensure that our programming will meet our editorial guidelines. Decisions about our output will be made in the lead-up to the festival.”
On Wednesday, Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was cheered by hundreds of supporters as he arrived with bandmates Naoise O Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh at Westminster magistrates court in “Free Mo Chara” T-shirts.
Ó hAnnaidh was released on unconditional bail until his next hearing on 20 August.
After the hearing, the rapper said: “For anybody going to Glastonbury, you can see us there at 4pm on the Saturday.
“If you can’t be there we’ll be on the BBC, if anybody watches the BBC. We’ll be at Wembley in September.
“But most importantly: free, free Palestine.”
The charge followed a counter-terrorism police investigation after gig footage came to light, which also allegedly showed the group calling for the deaths of MPs. In April, Kneecap apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been “exploited and weaponised”.
