Kneecap walk free on a technicality - and that’s a national disgrace, writes Chris Philp
Today Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh had his terror charge dismissed due to a massive blunder.
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Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence after he was accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah.
Kneecap have been investigated by the police on multiple occasions. Footage of their concert appeared to show a band member say: ‘the only good Tory is a dead Tory’. Footage of another concert showed a band member shouting ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’. The very name of the group refers to a violent act of intimidation carried out by terrorists.
We should be in no doubt that supporting terrorist organisations is illegal.
The CPS is operationally independent, but why on Earth was the most senior law officer in government not across the details of this case? Lord Hermer has serious questions to answer.
Ever since Lord Hermer was appointed by Keir Starmer, he has gone from scandal to scandal. His position as Attorney General is untenable.
He advised the Labour Government to hand over £30 billion and our territory in the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, an ally of China.
He compared calls for the UK to leave the ECHR to demands from those in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
He approved the charge against Lucy Connolly for a distasteful tweet, whilst at the same time declining to review unduly lenient sentences for dangerous criminals.
Hermer declined to review the case of a man who was given 28 months in prison for raping a woman in her home. He did not review the case of a man who was spared jail after pleading guilty to attempting to incite a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity. He did not review the sentence of a man who avoided prison even though he sent money to his nephew in Syria knowing it was to fund his terrorist activity.
The list truly is endless.
Lord Hermer has shown appalling judgement time and again. Now he has shown himself to be incompetent as well. If Starmer had any backbone at all, he would sack Hermer. But we all know he is too weak.
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Chris Philp is Shadow Home Secretary and Conservative MP for Croydon South.
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