Everything you need to know about Kneecap’s ‘k*ll your MP’ scandal

Transcript

00:00What's going on with kneecap? The Northern Irish rap trio are no strangers to controversy.

00:05They've been banned by Irish broadcasters and were kicked out of their own gig in 2019

00:10for inflammatory chants. But over the past week the Belfast group have come under a lot more heat

00:15than usual. So what's been going on? A video of kneecap allegedly calling for the death of British

00:21MPs in November 2023 has resurfaced and gone viral. The clip's been met with fierce criticism.

00:33Counter-terrorism police are assessing the video and Kemi Badnock has called for the band's

00:37prosecution. We've been giving taxpayers money to a group that's been calling for MPs to be killed,

00:43promoting Hamas and Hezbollah. Anti-British sentiment that has no place in the country.

00:47They should be prosecuted. The incident comes after the band was

00:50already receiving heightened criticism after their recent Coachella performance.

00:54The group called out the Israeli and US governments for the genocide in Gaza,

00:58causing another video to resurface where a band member appeared to show support for Hamas and

01:04Hezbollah. Kneecap have since apologized for both separate incidents. In a statement they said they

01:10do not and have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and asserted that the Kill Your MPs video was

01:15deliberately taken out of context. However, Keir Starmer called the apology

01:20half-hearted, and family members of murdered MPs Joe Cox and David Amos rejected it.

01:25So it's not really an apology if you don't actually speak to the people that you're apologizing to.

01:30And all they did was make excuses as to why they said that kind of thing. So it's not really an apology

01:36at all. And the debate doesn't show any signs of quieting down. The band has been dropped from the

01:42Eden Project concert series removed from two major German festivals and there are also calls to take

01:48them off the Glastonbury lineup.