Kneecap row Massive Attack hit out at 'concocted moral outrage'

BRISTOL band Massive Attack have defended one of a rap group's members after they appeared to call for Tory MPs to be killed.

- Abigail NICHOLSON

Video emerged from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member of Kneecap saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

Issuing a statement, Massive Attack stepped into the furore, saying: "Language matters of course. The hideous murders of elected politicians Jo Cox and David Amess means there's no scope for flippancy or recklessness."

But it said politicians were "strategically concocting moral outrage over the stage utterings of a young punk band" while ignoring a "genocide" in Gaza.

The statement added: "Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story. And the silence, acquiescence and support of those crimes against humanity by the elected British government is the real story.

"Solidarity with all artists with the moral courage to speak out against Israeli war crimes, and the ongoing persecution and slaughter of the Palestinian people."

It comes as the Metropolitan Police assesses the video clip, along with footage from another concert in November 2024 in which a member of Kneecap appeared to shout "up Hamas, up Hezbollah" - groups banned as terrorist organisations in the UK.