“This is about the threats that shouldn’t be made,” Keir Starmer says ahead of Irish trio’s festival performance next weekend
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has weighed in on Kneecap’s upcoming Glastonbury gig, saying that the Irish trio should not play the festival.
Kneecap has drawn controversy on both sides of the Atlantic with their unbridled support for Palestine, including at Coachella, where the trio’s pro-Palestine messaging was cut from the festival’s livestream on the first weekend.
In May, Kneecap’s Mo Chara was charged with a terror offense stemming from an onstage incident at a London concert in November 2024; Chara, who is currently out on bail, allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag and yelling “up Hamas, up Hezbollah,” as well as “the only good Tory is a dead Tory,” during that show.
Several U.K. politicians have recently called for Kneecap to be removed from future festival lineups, including Glastonbury; the trio was subsequently removed from the Scottish festival TRNSMT due to police safety concerns. However, Kneecap is still scheduled to perform next Saturday at Glastonbury, with the gig broadcast live (as of now) by the BBC.
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Ahead of Glastonbury, Starmer was asked by the Sun whether Kneecap should be allowed to play at the iconic festival. “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.”
Conservative party leader Kem Badenoch echoed Starmer’s sentiment and further criticized the BBC’s decision to broadcast Kneecap’s set, writing on social media, “As a publicly funded platform, the BBC should not be rewarding extremism.”
