Labour ministers are today facing questions over why they did not intervene to block a ban on Israeli football fans attending a match in Birmingham, after it emerged they were told about a week ago.
Sir Keir Starmer and senior Cabinet members are today applying major pressure on police to reverse the decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from their November 6 Europa League match against Aston Villa.
No10 said Sir Keir Starmer had been ‘angered’ and discussions were happening ‘at pace, across Government’ to get the decision by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group – backed by West Midlands Police – reversed.
The decision last night sparked outrage from politicians, led by the Prime Minister and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, as well as British Jewish leaders.
Ms Badenoch said it sent ‘a horrendous and shameful message: there are parts of Britain where Jews simply cannot go’.
But it emerged today that the Home Office was told last week ‘about the potential issues and options that the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) may take including restrictions on visiting fans’.
The UK Football Policing Unit, which is made up of senior officers and advises forces in England and Wales on security at matches, made the claim as it defended the ban on the grounds that WMP and local officials would be ‘held responsible’ if there were any ‘adverse incidents’.
It added that if ministers wanted a role in operational decisions ‘they need to bring forward legislation to formalise this to ensure accountability sits with decision-makers.’
However the Tories said that ministers already had all the powers they need, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp saying his opposite number Shabana Mahmood should order WMP to protect the Israeli fans.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at a Europa League match at PAOK in Thessaloniki on September 24
‘The Home Secretary should use powers in s40 of the Police Act 1996 to direct West Midlands Police to protect Tel Aviv fans from any threat and allow them to attend the Aston Villa game,’ he said.
‘It is unacceptable to allow the threat of anti-Semitic mob violence to dictate who can or can’t attend a football match.’
UEFA, which runs the Europa League, urged UK authorities to make sure Maccabi Tel Aviv fans could attend the match.
There was further fury when the ban was supported by several leftwing pro-Gaza MPs who accused Tel Aviv fans of being ‘violent’ – claims denied by the club.
Ayoub Khan, the Perry Bar MP who is a close ally of hard-Left former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, backed the ban on ‘violent’ fans and said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘clearly wrong’ to intervene.
Meanwhile there were calls for a statement to be made by the Prince of Wales, who is patron of the Football Association and one of Villa’s most famous fans. The Daily Mail has contacted Kensington Palace to establish whether William will be commenting.
Sir Keir said on X: ‘This is the wrong decision. We will not tolerate anti-Semitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.’
A No10 spokesman told reporters this morning: ‘Conversations began on this last night.
‘You will have seen the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has asked police and Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group to immediately review the decision.
‘Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is meeting officials to discuss what more can be done to try and find a way through to resolve this, and what more can be done to allow fans to attend the game safely.
‘The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, spoke to the local council this morning, and the Home Office is urgently working to support police to try and find a way through this.
‘You can expect to hear further updates today. I won’t pre-empt the conversations, but these are happening at pace, across Government, with all the relevant groups to find a way to resolve this.’
West Midlands Police said they had classified the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture as high risk based on ‘current intelligence and previous incidents’.
The included ‘violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam’.
Prince William speaks to Aston Villa players during a visit to the club’s training centre on 2021
However Jack Angelides, the club’s chief executive, said its fans had been victims rather than perpetrators of violence in the Dutch capital.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: ‘What transpired was following the match where there was, it materialised, an organised concerted attack against anyone that was connected with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
That includes from ultra fans to families with young children. So to suggest we were the instigators and not the victims is just false.’
He added: ‘But I do think this is an extremely important moment because of what it signifies.
‘I don’t use this term lightly but people ask, “What does anti-Semitism look like?”
‘And it’s often manifested as part of a process, a process in other words small events leading up to something that’s more sinister.’
Rupert Lowe, the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, said: ‘We shouldn’t be banning groups of football fans from Britain because Muslims might get offended.’
Violence between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli fans erupted around the Europa League match between Dutch club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last year.
Five men were given prison sentences and more than 60 people were detained in the riots, which prompted accusations of deliberate antisemitic attacks.
Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv stage a pro-Israel demonstration in Amsterdam, lighting up flares and chanting slogans ahead of their Europa League match against Ajax on November 7, 2024
Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv before their match against Ajax in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024
Culture department minister Ian Murray said senior Government figures will meet today to ‘see if there’s a way through’ the ban, describing it as the ‘wrong decision’.
Mr Murray told Sky News: ‘The Prime Minister and the Government have been clear about that. In fact, pretty much every politician has been clear about that.’
He added: ‘It’s just completely and utterly unacceptable, and the Prime Minister has said we will do everything we possibly can to resolve this issue.
‘It’s an operational issue for the police, and Government doesn’t get involved in operational issues for the police.
‘But I know the Culture Secretary of State (Lisa Nandy) will be meeting with the Home Office and other stakeholders today to try and see if there’s a way through this.’
It comes after Ms Badenoch said on X: ‘This is a national disgrace. How have things come to this?
‘Starmer pledged that Jews are welcome and safe in Britain. That he stands shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community and will use the full force of his government to prove it.
‘Will he back those words with action and guarantee that Jewish fans can walk into any football stadium in this country?
‘If not, it sends a horrendous and shameful message: there are parts of Britain where Jews simply cannot go.’
The Prime Minister, earlier yesterday, said ‘words are not enough, action is what matters’ in tackling anti-Semitism.
He announced a review of anti-Semitism in the NHS while on a visit to the Community Security Trust (CST), which provides protection for Jewish communities in the UK.
Government efforts to stamp out anti-Semitism have been in the spotlight in the wake of the terrorist attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2 that left two men dead.
Figures released by the Home Office last week suggest antisemitic hate crime remains near record levels.
The honorary president of Aston Villa Jewish Villains supporters’ club, Andrew Fox, said the ban sends a ‘really worrying message’ about British society.
He told Newsnight: ‘We cannot conflate anti-Semitism when we look at what some of these fans did in Amsterdam in 2024, the vile chants of racism and hatred, the chants that ‘there are no schools left in Gaza because there are no children left in Gaza’.
‘We’re talking about violent fans and the PM should stay out of operational matters. This is not a matter for him sitting in No10 Downing Street, it’s a matter for the local police teams here in Birmingham to make an assessment.
‘We must make sure it is not just residents that are protected and are safe but (Aston Villa) players and staff.’
Iqbal Mohamed, independent MP for Dewsbury & Batley, said on X: ‘Thank you all who put the safety of Aston Villa fans, Birmingham residents and the British public above the Zionist and political pressure to let Israeli hooligans and terrorists run riot in our country.’
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had called for the match to be cancelled, saying on X: ‘Israeli football teams shouldn’t play in international tournaments whilst it commits genocide and apartheid.’
Ayoub Khan, the pro-Gaza Independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, welcomed the decision and told BBC Newsnight last night that it was ‘only right to take drastic measures’
But Simon Johnson, former COO of the Football Association and former CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council, told GB News: ‘I think it is a cowardly and shameful decision and it amounts to mob rule.
‘It means that anybody can make threats against a team and its fans and we now know that the police will cower in front of them on safety grounds and refuse to protect those that are being threatened.
‘To see the local MP crowing about this just shows that the mob has won, and I think that it is a decision that this country should be very ashamed of.’
