Republican rappers denied UK tax cash after Mail exposé
AN IRISH Republican rap band accused of stoking sectarian hatred has been denied taxpayer funding after a Mail exposé.
The Belfast group Kneecap – named after a paramilitary punishment in which a victim is shot in the knee – wear balaclavas and promote themselves with images of petrol bombs and attacks on police.
Despite the band’s calls for ‘Brits out of Ireland’, they were happy to apply for ‘significant’ funding from the Government’s £1.6million Music Export Growth Scheme. But the money was blocked by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who said taxpayers should not fund people who oppose the UK.
Yesterday, they posted on X:
‘We’ve been blocked from receiving significant music funding because a Tory Minister doesn’t like our art. F**k the Tories.’
In a statement they added: ‘Our application to the Music Export Growth Scheme was independently approved and signed off by a selection board. It was then blocked directly by the British Government, who overruled the board.’
The band claimed this was because the Government didn’t like the poster for its Farewell To The Union tour, which featured an image of the then PM Boris Johnson and DUP leader Arlene Foster strapped to a rocket on a burning bonfire, as two band members crouched at the bottom holding a petrol bomb.
The poster was highlighted by the Mail last month in an exposé of how
‘Mocking the Queen’s death’
a separate £1.6million of taxpayers’ and National Lottery cash was spent on a semi-autobiographical film starring the band.
Victims of Republican and Loyalist terror attacks have branded the group ‘sectarian bigots’ who glamorise terrorism. They told the Mail the huge handout was especially galling when many of those who were bereaved or disabled in terror attacks during the Troubles had been denied payouts from a Government compensation scheme.
The band has courted controversy by mocking the Queen’s death, shouting IRA slogans and making shooting gestures at audiences. In 2022 it was accused of ‘fostering hatred’ among a new generation in Northern Ireland after shouting ‘Brits out of Ireland’ as it unveiled a mural of a burning police Land Rover above the Irish language slogan: ‘No welcome for the RUC.’
It also retweeted a news report warning that teenagers were expressing support for the IRA on social media with the comment: ‘Finally some gd news.’
A week after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in which 1,200 people were killed, it posted a picture of the Palestinian flag emblazoned with the slogan: ‘Resistance is Not Terrorism’ and a fist emoji.
The band, who declined to speak to the Mail, claimed the poster was art and that the band were just fun, and their critics don’t get the joke.
A spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said: ‘We fully support freedom of speech, but it’s hardly surprising that we don’t want to hand out UK taxpayers’ money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.’