Kneecap apology branded 'gaslighting' by daughter of murdered MP David Amess
The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess has accused Kneecap of “gaslighting” in their apology, and said it would be “very dangerous” for the group to perform at Glastonbury.
The latest storm to hit the rap trio has seen high-profile gigs cancelled and questions asked in parliament after a video emerged appearing to show one of them saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory – kill your local MP” during a gig in London around 18 months ago.
The footage is currently being examined by the Metropolitan Police, though Kneecap have said it was not inciting violence while simultaneously claiming it was taken out of context.
They also offered “heartfelt apologies” to the families of murdered MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess – though Sir David’s daughter Katie Amess branded their statement “deflection and excuses and gaslighting”.
In an interview with the PA news agency, she said: “It was absurd, that’s not an apology. It’s deflection, it is not taking accountability, it’s making excuses.
“They don’t understand what they’re talking about, they obviously aren’t educated enough in what they’re speaking about to think that they can use those excuses and everybody will be like, ‘oh, never mind, let’s move on to something else’.”
Ms Amess called on the group to apologise directly to those they had offended.
She felt Scotland Yard should “absolutely” investigate the matter, adding: “If the police had followed through and looked into threats against my dad the night before the murder, my dad would still be here.
“So we can’t wait until after the act and then say, ‘oh dear, lessons will be learned’. No, lessons are never learned.
“When these things happen, when there’s a warning, when there’s an incitement to do this, we have to get ahead of these things in order to prevent loss of innocent lives. And if we’d have done that with my dad, he would still be here.”
Ms Amess also said that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch may be correct in saying that the group should be banned “full stop”.
She said: “I think we need to let the police do an investigation.
“I think that maybe Kemi is right. I don’t know all the ins and outs of all the history of other stuff that they have said, so I don’t want to speak out of line.
“But the police definitely need to investigate and there needs to be criminal action against them.
“And then if we find that, yeah, they really are spouting this kind of rhetoric and they don’t understand the consequences, and this has happened consistently and they’re not taking accountability, then perhaps, yes, but we should investigate first.”
Tory MP Sir David was stabbed to death by an Islamist radical in 2021, and Labour MP Jo Cox died after being stabbed and shot by a white supremacist in 2016.
Ms Amess has previously warned there were “absolute nutters” who could try to act upon the comments allegedly made by Kneecap, and now adds her voice to the growing choir calling on the Glastonbury Festival to drop the band.
“For them to get up on stage in front of millions of people, who knows what they’re going to say, it could be very, very dangerous,” she said.