Overview
- Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation as prime minister and Labour leader on Monday, June 22, triggering a leadership timetable that opens nominations on July 9 and aims to have a new leader in place by September 1.
- Hours after Starmer’s Downing Street statement, Belfast rap trio Kneecap posted an Instagram video captioned “Slán Keir” that mocks his time in office and includes clips of their Glastonbury set and footage of Starmer calling them “completely intolerable.”
- The social post recaps the group’s past stage chants directed at Starmer and echoes lyrics from their single “Liars Tale,” which criticises his stance on Israel and includes explicit attacks on the prime minister.
- Legal proceedings that fed the row ended with a chief magistrate ruling the terror charge against Kneecap member Mo Chara was “instituted unlawfully,” a decision the High Court upheld after the Crown Prosecution Service’s appeal was rejected earlier this year.
- The exchange highlights a wider national debate about how to draw the line between political expression and incitement, and it may force Labour leadership candidates to address policy on protest, policing and cultural freedom during the contest.