The daughter of murdered Conservative MP David Amess has said she would like to meet Kneecap and believes the trio need “re-education”.
The band has been engulfed in controversy in the past few days after footage emerged of them seemingly telling attendees at one of their gigs that, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Footage from a separate event suggests they also shouted, “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” to a crowd.
The alleged statements are now being examined by Britain’s Metropolitan Police “to determine whether any further police investigation may be required.”
View this post on Instagram
The band have since posted a statement on social media in which they distanced themselves from Hamas and Hezbollah, condemned attacks on civilians and apologised to the families of Jo Cox and David Amess - two British MPs who were murdered.
“We send our heartfelt apologies,” they wrote.
“We never intended to cause you hurt.”
On Newstalk Breakfast, David Amess’ daughter, Katie, said an online statement “really isn’t going to cut it”.
“They didn’t actually contact us, we haven’t heard from them directly,” she said.
“They just put a statement on X; they definitely need to contact people that it has affected because who knows if we would even see that if someone hadn’t passed it on to us.
“I feel like it’s not really addressing the issues; they said they were misquoted or taken out of context.
“But verbatim what they said was, ‘The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.’
“I don’t see how that can be taken out of context, that is actually what they said.”
David Amess. Picture by: Alamy.com.When asked whether she would be willing to meet the band, Ms Amess said she “definitely” would be interested in doing so.
“If they want to have a chat and meet face to face and kind of hear what it’s like to be a victim of this kind of crime and how deeply distressing and hurtful it is to hear that kind of rhetoric still happening, then I would be more than willing,” she said.
“I think they need re-education; spouting that kind of incitement to violence is just beyond stupidity, to be honest with you.”
Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson after the murder of David Amess. Picture by: Alamy.com.Since the controversy, a number of music festivals have cancelled Kneecap’s performances with them.
It is, Ms Amess feels, a reasonable response to their behaviour.
“They’re not the victims,” she said.
“The victims are the people who have gone through a murder, so they’re not the victims here, I’m afraid.
“The police need to do a full investigation and find out why they said it, if anybody is now planning on acting on it, how many people they said it to.
“It needs to go through the court system, the justice system because it is a crime.
“The reason that people are now considering cancelling their concerts is because they don’t know what they’re going to get up on stage and say.
“If you’re going to get up on stage and say such dangerous, violent stuff, then who knows if someone’s going to act on it or not.”
A daughter of Conservative MP Sir David Amess, views flowers and tributes left for their late father at Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Picture by: Alamy.com.Ms Amess described the controversy as a “terrible situation” and said the murder of her father in 2021 had “destroyed” her life.
“Imagine if your Dad, who had worked for the country for 38-years, for the good of people, not the political game, [had been killed],” she said.
“[He was] a loving, kind-hearted, hard-working man; imagine if your Dad was him and he went to work and he went to work in a church one day, to meet somebody that he thought had a housing problem and that person killed him in a terrible, awful, tragic way.
“Would you then be happy to be standing in front of tens of thousands of people saying, ‘Go and kill your MP’? No you wouldn’t.
“You would be absolutely heart-broken; my life has been destroyed by the exact act that they are telling people to do.
“I would just ask them to reconsider before they speak; they’re in a position that could be hugely positive and influential to create change in the world and love and kindness.
“And they’re using it for all the wrong reasons.”
In 2022, Mr Amess’ killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was sentenced to a whole life tariff for his murder, meaning he will never be released from prison.
Main image: Split of Kneecap and Katie Amess. Pictures by: Alamy.com
