No 10 says talks happening ‘at pace’ across government to get Maccabi fans ban lifted
Downing Street has said that discussions are happening “at pace, across government” to resolve the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending the Europa League match in Birmingham.
At the morning lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters:
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.
Key events
The Campaign Against Antisemitism says it has written to Birmingham city council and the West Midlands police saying it will seek a judicial review of the decision not to allow Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend the Europa League match. “We will do whatever it takes to overturn this pernicious ban which has humiliated and angered the whole country,” it says in a statement, which does not give details of the grounds it would use for a JR application.
Sundus Abdi
Sundus Abdi is a Guardian reporter.
Groups including Youth Front for Palestine, Game Over Israel, and Football Against Apartheid have praised the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending the Europa League match as a “victory for Palestine”, crediting “popular pressure” and “direct action” by activists in Birmingham and across the UK.
In a joint statement, the campaigners said the decision shows the power of coordinated protest. “This victory is a clear example of pressure working, of the importance of action and unity in fighting against the Zionist entity,” it read. They are now calling for the match itself to be cancelled, saying that Israel’s participation in UEFA “normalises the genocide”. “Genociders are not welcome in our cities”, the post said.
In a video posted last month, Birmingham and Manchester-based group Youth Front for Palestine led a protest outside Aston Villa football club, where fans joined chants of “Free Palestine”. Demonstrators cited the killing of Palestinian footballer Suleiman Obeid, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike while waiting for humanitarian aid.
No 10 says Starmer ‘perfectly entitled’ to criticise police operational decision in defence of ‘principles of fairness’
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning, the No 10 spokeperson also defended Keir Starmer’s decision to speak out on the Maccabi Tel Aviv match ban – even though it is an operational matter for the police.
The spokesperson said:
The prime minister will do everything in his power to give Jewish communities the security they deserve and, as he has made clear, we think this is the wrong decision.
Like everyone seeing this news, the PM has been angered by the decision.
Football has been a unifying force for decades and everyone should be able to attend a football match without fear of violence or intimidation regardless of their religion, nationality or background.
We should not have a country where we have to tell people to stay away from certain events because we cannot protect them, or they may be a victim of racism.
This government will do everything in its power to heal society and tackle divisions. We want a Britain built for all and we will never tolerate antisemitism on the streets.
While of course this is an operational decision, we are perfectly entitled to speak out on fundamental principles of fairness like this.
Legal challenge to Palestine Action ban can go ahead, court rules
A legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action can go ahead next month after the court of appeal rejected the Home Office’s attempt to block the case, Haroon Siddique reports.
No 10 says talks happening ‘at pace’ across government to get Maccabi fans ban lifted
Downing Street has said that discussions are happening “at pace, across government” to resolve the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending the Europa League match in Birmingham.
At the morning lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters:
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.
PM’s opposition to Maccabi ban shows he’s willing to tolerate ‘racist incitement’, Palestine Solidarity Campaign claims
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has backed the decision to stop Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Europa League match. In a series of posts on social media, including video clips, it says the Maccabi fans have “a track record of committing racist violence”.
Starmer’s criticism of the ban shows that he expects Birmingham residents to tolerate racist incitement, and expects police to provide cover for it. He has no regard for Palestinian safety, whether in Palestine or here in Britain. This is blatant anti-Palestinian racism. (3/9)
But the PSC is also calling for the match to be cancelled. Like the Green party (see 11.24am), it says Israeli teams to be banned from international sports events.
Allowing Israeli football teams to compete in international competitions sanitises its horrific atrocities against Palestinians, and allows Israel to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth of its oppression of Palestinians. (6/9)
Israeli football cannot be separated from Israel’s apartheid regime. The Israel Football Association contains at least 6 football clubs in illegal Israeli settlements based on land stolen from Palestinians. (7/9)
Palestinians have long demanded that international sporting bodies ban Israel from membership, just as was done to apartheid South Africa. This call is growing in momentum. But UEFA and FIFA still refuse to act. (8/9)
Labour describes Farage’s latest Russia comments as desperate attempt to ‘backtrack’ from pro-Putin record
Labour has accused Nigel Farage of “desperately trying to backtrack” from his previous relatively pro-Putin stance in an interview where he said Russian jets in Nato airspace should be shot down.
Farage made the comment in a long interview on Bloomberg’s The Mishal Husain Show in which he was more critical of the Russian president than he has been in the past. With Reform UK well ahead of all other parties in opinion polls, Labour views Farage’s stance on Russia as a weakness.
Farage has in the past said he admires Vladimir Putin for his effectiveness. He has always been less critical of Putin than most mainstream European politicians, and recently Reform UK’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for making pro-Russia statements in the European parliament.
Farage told Bloomberg: “The idea that I’m soft on [Russia] is just nonsense.”
He said that he was in favour of using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine and he said, if he were to become PM, he might even deploy British troops to Ukraine as part of a UN peacekeeping force.
Asked what he would do if Russian jets entered allied airspace, he replied: “Gotta shoot them down.”
He also said:
Obviously, Putin is a very bad dude. I was really hoping that [Donald] Trump would bring Putin to heel, that some kind of compromise could be struck, as it’s just been recently struck with Gaza and Israel. Clearly, that is not going to happen.
Asked about Gill’s conviction, Farage called him a “bad apple”. He also said he was sure “without any shadow of a doubt” that Gill was the only Reform UK politician taking bribes to speak up for Russia. “I believe, 100%, with all my heart, there’s nobody else,” he said.
Commenting on the interview, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said:
Having called Vladimir Putin the leader he most admired, and with his close associate and former Reform Leader in Wales having admitted taking bribes to praise Russia, Nigel Farage is now panicking and desperately trying to backtrack. But he can’t help himself.
Turley also pointed out that in the Bloomberg interview Farage repeated his claim that the “the endless eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union” contributed to Putin’s decision to invade Russia.
Turley said:
He’s still peddling the Russian line on their illegal invasion of Ukraine being the fault of the West. That’s not true, and it shows Reform can’t be trusted to stand up for our national security or for our Ukrainian allies. Putin doesn’t have to pay Nigel Farage to spout Russian talking points – he does it for free.
China threatens UK with ‘consequences’ over delayed London mega embassy
Tensions between Britain and China have escalated after Beijing criticised further delays to a planning decision on its proposed “mega embassy” in London, Kiran Stacey reports.
I have updated the post at 9.31am to remove the comment saying Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam, described the attacks on Maccabi supporters at the Europa League match in the city last November as reviving memories of “pogroms” because she later withdrew that comment, saying it had been exploited as propaganda.
Green party calls for all Israeli teams to be banned from international competitions because of events in Gaza
The Green party has issued a statement on the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ban, in a comment from its co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, a Leeds councillor.
He has criticised Keir Starmer for trying to over-rule an operatational decision taken by the police. Ali said:
Everyone should be able to feel safe when they attend a football match, that’s non-negotiable. It’s irresponsible for Keir Starmer to question a safety decision of a local authority, especially when he is responsible for their chronic underfunding.
Ali went on to implicitly defend the plan, but he also went much further – saying all Israeli teams should be banned from international competitions because of what is happening in Gaza. He said:
Under normal circumstances, supporters from across the fanbase should be allowed to attend and provision taken to ban violent elements such as The Ultras. But these are not normal circumstances: these games are taking place in the context of thousands of civilians being killed in Gaza, the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and the upholding of a system of apartheid.
This raises serious moral questions for the UK, UEFA, and the wider football community. We need a sporting and cultural boycott of all Israeli teams, like we saw for South African teams under apartheid. International sporting bodies can and must take a stand when basic human rights are being violated.
Football should be a force for peace and justice, not a tool to sportwash atrocities.
