Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded the prosecution of rap trio Kneecap for allegedly calling for the death of Tory MPs.
Video resurfaced of the group at a November 2023 gig where one member allegedly said: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The Metropolitan Police is looking into the incident, alongside footage from another concert that occurred in November 2024 in which a member of the band allegedly said “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
Conservative MP Mr Amess was stabbed to death while meeting constituents in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021.
His daughter Katie Amess told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster: “It is just beyond belief that human beings would speak like that in this day and age and it is extremely dangerous.”
“To say to kill anybody, what on earth are they thinking”, warning there were “absolute nutters” who may attempt to act upon the comments allegedly made by the Irish Rap collective.
She called on the group to apologise, saying how she is: “absolutely gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric”.
Mrs Badenoch blocked a government grant to the bilingual Belfast based group while she was business secretary; However in November last year Kneecap won a discrimination challenge that overturned the decision to stop them receiving a £14,250 funding award after the British government conceded that their initial decision was ‘unlawful’.
Kneecap, made up of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Caireallain and JJ Ó Dochartaigh, alleged on social media they have “faced a co-ordinated smear campaign”, after speaking out about the genocide against the Palestinian people.
Earlier in the week, Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert said the band had received “severe” death threats after Coachella where they expressed their support for Palestine.
