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A prominent Northern Ireland-based rap group is taking legal action against the UK government after it blocked arts funding for the three musicians because they “oppose the United Kingdom”.
In a letter from their solicitor at Phoenix Law seeking a judicial review of the decision, the trio that make up the band Kneecap said the action amounted to “state-sponsored censorship”.
It added that the decision by Kemi Badenoch, the UK’s business and trade secretary, breached the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of conflict in the region.
An Irish-language film about the band, which advocates for a united Ireland and raps mostly in Irish, won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival last month.
The business department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, was quoted by local media confirming that the grant had been blocked because “we don’t want to hand out UK taxpayers’ money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself”.
The letter said the decision to deny the funding under the Music Export Growth Scheme — despite a recommendation from an independent selection panel that the award be granted — also contravened the Windsor framework, the post-Brexit trade deal for the region between the UK’s Conservative government and the EU.
The British Phonographic Industry, which administers the scheme, said it was “disappointed” at the government’s decision not to approve the grant.
The group has courted controversy with its lyrics, by posing in front of murals calling for the UK to leave Northern Ireland and by leading choruses of “Brits out”.
Posting on X, the group said: “We’ve been blocked from receiving significant music funding because a Tory Minister doesn’t like our art. F*ck the Tories.”
Colum Eastwood, an MP from Northern Ireland’s small nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party, called Badenoch’s decision “highly irregular” and demanded an explanation.
“Art is meant to be challenging. You don’t have to agree with an artist or group to understand the importance of funding creators who challenge the status quo and the establishment,” he said.
Dan Lambert, the manager of Kneecap, confirmed that the funding had been blocked. He said the band’s three members — Liam Og Hanna, Naoise O’Caireallain and James John O’Dochartaigh — had applied for a £30,000 grant.
The letter from Phoenix Law, seen by the Financial Times, said the group had applied in December and was told on February 8 that the application had been signed off by a panel of industry experts and referred to the business department for approval.
The letter said the department “took a decision to refuse the request for funding on the premise that our clients were ‘people that oppose the United Kingdom’.”
Badenoch had made clear that “the premise on which the decision was taken was exclusively down to the fact that our client advocates in favour of a United Ireland”, Phoenix Law’s letter continued, branding it “state-sponsored censorship”.
The decision “blatantly flies in the face” of the principles of parity of esteem enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, it added, and also flouted Article 10 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provide for freedom of expression and non-discrimination. Respect for the ECHR is part of the 1998 peace deal.