10 Downing Street Refutes Claims of Indecisiveness on Violence and Deputies: ‘An Apology is Required’

10 Dauning Street Response

10 Dauning Street has rejected the application for violence, labeling the deputy as “indecisive” and stating, “they must apologize.”

Statement From Knee Cup

Late last night (April 28), the knee cup took to X/Twitter to issue a statement regarding their alleged support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the promotion of violence against deputies. They stated: “Let's be unequivocal: we do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians; it is never in order.”

“We also reject any proposal that seeks to incite violence against any deputy or individual. When -liba,” they continued. “The release of captured material, deliberately removed from its full context, is now weaponized, as if it were a call to action.”

This follows the Irish rap group’s calls for the removal of certain politicians from several upcoming festival dates, including Glastonbury and Trnsmt. It was revealed earlier this week that counter-terrorism police are evaluating footage from their previous London show.

The footage reportedly shows a member of the knee tea shouting “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah,” while waving a Hezbollah flag. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are recognized as prohibited terrorist organizations by the British Government. Inviting support for a banned organization is also a crime under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

Knee statement:

They want you to believe that words are more harmful than genocide.

The figures of the establishment, desperately trying to silence us, sifted through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a few words from months or years ago to impose moral judgment… pic.twitter.com/qzht5532zf

– Knight Cup (@kneecapceool) April 28, 2025

Subsequent messages indicated that police began evaluating another video from one of their concerts, which allegedly shows a group calling for the death of conservative deputies. In response, Labor Party deputy David Taylor and Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney publicly called for the removal of the knee from several summer festivals.

The Joe Cox Foundation, named after the Labor MP Joe Cox, who was killed in 2016, also issued a statement on X/Twitter, condemning the group for having “clearly crossed the line from political expression to incitement to violence.”

Moreover, the daughter of the late conservative MP David Amess, who was killed in 2021, expressed her shock on BBC at the “stupidity of individuals or groups in the public eye making such dangerous, violent rhetoric,” adding that the group should apologize to her and others who felt offended.

Today (April 29), 10 Dauning Street responded to the company’s statement, with an official representative of the Prime Minister saying: “They must apologize. I think that you saw what they said, and I find this indecisive,” LBC claimed.

The statement further clarified: “We utterly reject in the strongest terms their comments, especially regarding deputies and intimidation, as well as the situation in the Middle East.”

“It is correct that the police are reviewing these videos.”

Nonetheless, the knee cup did express an apology in their original statement, directly addressing the families of Cox and Amess, saying: “We send our heartfelt condolences; we never intended to hurt you.”

Additionally, in a later address, they continued to label the “distortion” of their messages as “absurd” and “transparent efforts to misconstrue a real conversation.” Instead, they suggested that “real anger and indignation should be directed” at “influential figures in Britain,” who “incited the massacre and hunger,” claiming that “the British government continues to supply weapons to Israel, even after NHS doctors warned Keir Starmer in August that children are being systematically executed with gunshots in their heads.”

Reiterating their position, they wrote: “The message of the knee has always been – and continues to be – one of love, inclusion, and hope. That is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes, and cultures, and has drawn hundreds of thousands to our concerts. No campaign will change this.”

“The real crimes are not in our speeches; the real crimes lie in the silence and complicity of those in power. Shame on them,” they concluded.

According to them, the anti-racist group Mo Chara commented on the NME story from June 2024: “Obviously, I can’t speak for what happened before me,” expressing sympathy for the suffering of previous generations of the Irish. “But we do not support violence, as it no longer makes sense.”

Knee statement:

Since our statements in Coachella – exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, we have faced a coordinated smear.

For over a year, we have used our shows to highlight the complicity of British and Irish governments in war crimes… pic.twitter.com/mbojb5qbop

– Knight Cup (@kneecapceool) April 25, 2025

In response to the news of a counter-terrorism investigation, the knee cup shared a graphic stating: “18 months of footage of genocide that went uninvestigated by the British counter-terrorism police, with the caption ‘some facts’.”

This month, tensions also surfaced against Tories in Coachella, the first of which led the crowd to chant against the late conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Incidents at Coachella led to calls for Sharon Osbourne to revoke their work visas, with reports suggesting that the organizers were “blinded” by the obviously political nature of several acts, which included projecting missing persons on screens and encouraging the audience to chant “free, free Palestine.”

Since then, the knee cup has termed the contradiction a “coordinated smear” against their efforts to “bring attention to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

“For over a year, we have used our shows to highlight the complicity of the British and Irish governments in war crimes. Recent attacks on us, primarily emanating from the United States, are based on deliberate distortions and lies,” they stated, adding that “they are taking measures against some of these malicious efforts.”

“The reason why the knee cup is targeted is simple – we are telling the truth, and our audience is growing,” the statement continued. “Those who attack us want to silence criticism of mass slaughter. They launch false accusations of anti-Semitism to distract, confuse, and enable the cover of genocide,” emphasizing “a significant number of Jewish individuals” who “are outraged by this genocide, just like us.” “We care that the governments of the countries in which we perform allow some of the most horrific crimes of our lifetime – and we will not remain silent. No media will change this,” they concluded.

Despite calls for the group’s appearance in Glastonbury, Trnsmt, and other European festivals, they remain unaffected. Recently, their major show in Belfast with Fontaines DC sold out in just over half an hour, despite requests from the DUP to cancel it.