Controversial rappers Kneecap have won a fight for UK government cash they were refused by Kemi Badenoch.

At the High Court in Belfast this morning, government lawyers conceded the case, accepting Mrs Badenoch acted unlawfully in refusing a £14,250 grant Kneecap applied for last year.

Accusing the government of engaging in “a fascist-type action”, the group stated: “They have tried to silence us and they have failed.”

But loyalist activist Jamie Bryson slammed the decision to concede, stating: “What really happened is the nationalist Labour government rolled over.”

placeholder image — JJ O'Dochartaigh, also known as DJ Provai of Kneecap, holds up cash outside Belfast High Court after the UK government conceded a decision to refuse the band an arts grant was unlawful. Photo: Mark Marlow/PA Wire

And Kemi Badenoch blasted the outcome, a spokesman for her describing the decision to stop fighting the case as “unbelievable” and “cowardly” while also blaming the current Labour government for the move.

“This case is not about whether a band promotes violence or hates the UK, as Kneecap clearly do,” said the spokesman.

"This is about whether government ministers have the ability to stop taxpayers’ money subsidising people who neither need nor deserve it.”

Former Northern Ireland Tory MP candidate Aaron Rankin similarly questioned why an act as popular as Kneecap wanted the £14,250 in the first place.

"One can dislike this lot on artistic grounds but considering Kneecap sell out arenas, what on Earth do they need 14 grand for?” he asked on X, formerly Twitter.

“Also getting government grants isn’t exactly “gangsta”, to use rap parlance. Tupac never got arts funding.”

A government spokesman has stated that officials “do not believe it in the public interest” to spend taxpayers’ money fighting the Kneecap case.

The grant was part of a fund designed to help UK-registered artists tour overseas, and jointly run by Westminster’s Department for Business and Trade and Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Mrs Badenoch, then Business Secretary but now leader of the opposition, blocked the grant, resulting in Kneecap launching legal action.

The band claimed the decision to rescind the money discriminated against them on the grounds of nationality and political opinion.

During a brief hearing at Belfast High Court on Friday, Mr Justice Scoffield said he was glad the two sides in the case had reached agreement.

Kneecap are now to receive the government money they’d asked for.

In a statement, they pledged to donate the grant to two youth organisations in Belfast – one an Irish language group in the west of the city, the other a Shankill Road initiative aimed at tackling mental health issues, educational disadvantage and gang culture.

The band said: “For us, this action was never about £14,250; it could have been 50 pence.

“The motivation was equality.

“This was an attack on artistic culture, an attack on the Good Friday Agreement itself and an attack on Kneecap.”

Kneecap, who perform under the stage names Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai, openly court controversy with provocative lyrics and merchandise.

When the grant was refused last year, the rappers claimed their politics, especially a poster for a 2019 tour of mainland Britain featuring a cartoon of Boris Johnston strapped to a rocket atop a bonfire, had angered the Conservative Party.

At the time, a spokesman for the Tory government said that although it fully supported freedom of speech, it was “hardly surprising” that it did not want to hand UK taxpayers' money to groups opposed to the United Kingdom.