The First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, has backed calls for Kneecap to be axed from Glasgow’s TRNSMT music festival this summer.
Speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Dundee, John Swinney said the band’s alleged comments had “crossed a line” and were “beyond the pale”.
There has also been a call by two MPs for the group to be removed from the Glastonbury Festival line-up in June.
In a letter to Sir Michael Eavis, a co-creator of the festival, Labour MP David Taylor said it would be “deeply troubling” to see the band performing at the event.
North Antrim MP and leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Jim Allister has written to organisers of the Glastonbury Festival asking them to drop Kneecap from the festival.
He said that it was “wholly unacceptable for a mainstream, UK-wide cultural event to be seen to endorse — even by implication — messages of political violence and terror glorification”.
The band are listed to play on the Saturday of this year’s festival.
A BBC spokesperson said: “As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers.”
“The Glastonbury broadcast plans will be considered in the coming weeks, and all output will adhere to our editorial guidelines,” they added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for a German concert promoter and event producer, FKP GmbH, said Kneecap “will not be performing at Hurricane or Southside festival this year” in the country.
