Eden Project cancels Kneecap gig amid questions over Glastonbury appearance
Downing Street said an apology from rap group Kneecap over allegations that one of its members told a crowd to "kill" their MP, is "half-hearted", as ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen reports
Controversial Irish rap group Kneecap have had one of their Cornwall shows canceled by organisers after videos emerged of them appearing to call for Tory MPs to be killed, and another of them appearing to shout "up Hamas, up Hezbollah".
The band were due to be part of the Eden Project on July 4th, their spokesperson 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."
The cancellation came as ministers raised questions on Tuesday over their scheduled Glastonbury performance.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis has urged "Glastonbury Festival to think very carefully about who is invited to perform there this year" as calls continue for the trio to be removed from the line-up.
In an urgent question to the Commons, Conservative former minister Mark Francois said it would be “unconscionable” for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury and they “should surely be barred today”.
MrJarvis replied: “It is not for government ministers to say who is going to appear at Glastonbury, it’s for the organisers of the festival.
“But there is, as I have said, an ongoing live police investigation, so the government would urge the organisers at the Glastonbury Festival to think very carefully about who is invited to perform there later this year.”
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The video which led to the up roar is from a November 2023 gig, appearing to show one band member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Kneecap say this was "taken out of context and is now being exploited and weaponised as if it were a call to action."
The group made a public apology this morning via social media sending their "heartfelt apologies" to the Amess and Cox families - two MPs who were murdered in their constituencies.
The band also said they "never intended to cause you hurt" and “reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual”.
They added that attention given to this was a "transparent effort to derail the real conversation".
"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 hysteria."
But the daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess has rejected the group's apology.
"It was absurd, that's not an apology. It's deflection, it is not taking accountability, it's making excuses.
"These words that they are using are extremely dangerous and they have not acknowledged that."They have not said, 'please, nobody listen to what we said, we do not encourage any kind of murder to be committed against innocent people'."
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Francois described Kneecap’s apology as “crocodile tears”, with Downing Steet also rejecting their apology calling it "half-hearted".
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “They should apologise. I think you have seen what they have said, I think it is half-hearted.
“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.”
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