Kneecap lead ‘F*** Keir Starmer’ chant at Glastonbury

Notorious Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap led a chant of “f*** Keir Starmer” during their politically charged Glastonbury set on Saturday afternoon, just days after one of their members appeared in court for a terror offence.

The group – made up of DJ Próvaí, Mo Chara, and Móglaí Bap – had been criticised by the Prime Minister, who said he did not believe it would be “appropriate” for them to perform at the iconic music festival in Somerset.

Chara, 27, has been charged after footage emerged apparently showing him cloaked in a Hezbollah flag while shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah" at a gig in London last year. “Mo Chara was in the courts, the Westminster courts this month,” said Móglaí Bap of his bandmate during the performance.

To thunderous cheers from the crowd, the group initially threatened to “start a riot outside the courts” when Chara next appears in August – before clarifying: “No riots; just love and support and, more importantly, support for Palestine because that’s what it’s all about.”

“The stress that we’re feeling is minimal compared to what the Palestinian people are going through every day.”

From West Belfast and Derry, Kneecap claimed they have lived under “British occupation”, suggesting this was why they empathised with Palestinians. 

There was an enormous cheer when they said “Israel are war criminals; it’s a f***ing genocide”.

Referencing soon-to-be proscribed direction action group Palestine Action, Kneecap said “Palestine Action isn’t arming the genocide in Israel, it’s the UK government that’s doing that.”

GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 28: The crowd ahead of Kneecap during day four of Glastonbury festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 28, 2025 in Glastonbury, England. Established by Michael Eavis in 1970, Glastonbury has grown into the UK's largest music festival, drawing over 200,000 fans to enjoy performances across more than 100 stages. In 2026, the festival will take a fallow year, a planned pause to allow the Worthy Farm site time to rest and recover. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty Images

“F*** Keir Starmer, you’re just a sh*t Jeremy Corbyn,” Kneecap said, before leading the crowd in several expletive-filled chants aimed at the PM.

“The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play so f**k Keir Starmer.”

Playing the largest gig of their career, the band filled out the West Holts stage nearly an hour before the set began. Approximately one hundred Palestinian flags filled the audience, and people also carried the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanon. Many wore Palestine Action t-shirts, which the direct-action group had handed out for free earlier in the day.

Earlier in the day, the group posted a photo of Próvaí, who often wears an Irish tricolour balaclava, donning a Palestine Action t-shirt.

The BBC, which normally broadcasts Glastonbury sets live, confirmed on Saturday that the Kneecap set would not be livestreamed.

Kneecap did not directly address the BBC’s decision not to stream their set live, but commenting on the number of Palestinian flags in the audience, Chara said: “The BBC editor is going to have some f**king job.”

The trio repeatedly thanked Glastonbury and the Eavis family (Michael Eavis established the festival in 1970): “I want to say a big thank you to the Eavis family. The pressure that that family was under and they stood strong, fair play to them.”

The group thanked the family for “standing by Kneecap and standing by Palestine.”

Referring to their Coachella set in California when the band projected “f*** Israel” onto the stage, they said, “I spoke at Coachella and everybody in that f***ing tent agreed with me. The Israeli and the US media do not want to believe that young Americans agree with us.”

The trio’s performance began with a montage of different political and media figures criticising them. The audience booed when an audio clip of Jewish reality star Sharon Osbourne saying “shame on Glastonbury, they have destroyed it with one pathetic band” was played.

A mosh pit opens up in the crowd as Irish rap band Kneecap perform at the West Holts stage on the fourth day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton in Somerset, south-west England, on June 28, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images

There were more boos when the band asked if “anyone [is] going to Rod Stewart tomorrow? I mean the man is older than Israel.” Steward, who has previously performed in Israel, is headlining the festival’s Pyramid Stage and recently accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing the “annihilation” of Palestinians and repeating “exactly what happened to the Jews.”

Approached for comment, Glastonbury told the JC: “Glastonbury Festival does not condone hate speech or incitement to violence of any kind from its performers."