Government’s response to Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban was ‘clumsy’, say MPs

The government’s response to West Midlands Police’s ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was “clumsy”, “late” and “did little more than inflame tensions”, a group of MPs has found.A report by the home affairs select committee, published on Sunday, analysed the original decision to ban away fans from a Europa League fixture with Aston Villa in November, as well as the advice that led to it.The report concluded West Midlands Police (WMP) relied on “inaccurate information” and “failed to do even basic due diligence” on its intelligence.The committee also criticised the Home Office, which it said “failed to recognise the significance of the decision and escalate properly”, despite being informed more than a week before the ban was announced that it was likely.“By intervening only after the decision to ban away fans was taken, the government increased tension around the fixture but was ineffectual in enabling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend the fixture, which reflects unfavourably on the culture of the Home Office,” the report stated.The ban on the Israeli club’s fans, which was made by the council-led safety advisory group (SAG), caused widespread outrage at the time. Keir Starmer said it was “wrong” and suggested it amounted to antisemitism.The chair of the committee, Dame Karen Bradley, said the profile of this fixture “should have been obvious” to the government before the ban was announced.“Government intervention was clumsy and came too late, and we reject the government’s argument that it could only intervene once the decision was taken,” the Conservative MP said. “Their intervention when it came did little more than inflame tensions.”The committee also heavily criticised WMP for being “overly reliant on inaccurate and unverified information about the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans”. In particular, it said the use of artificial intelligence in the force’s intelligence gathering reinforced “false narratives”.Officers were forced to apologise to the committee in January after it emerged that false information included in its intelligence – on a fictional match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham United – had been retrieved with the use of Microsoft Copilot. The chief constable had previously told MPs that the force did not use AI.The actions by the police had caused “serious damage to trust … particularly among the local Jewish community, as well as to public confidence”, the inquiry found.An interim report by Sir Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of the Constabulary, was published in January and found police had been subject to a “confirmation bias” in their assessments.The force’s chief constable, Craig Guildford, was forced to step down and retire with immediate effect after the report’s publication and the home secretary’s withdrawal of confidence. Two investigations by the police watchdog are still under way into the force and Guildford over potential misconduct.“There appears to have been a ‘that’ll do’ attitude,” Bradley said. “Banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans would make policing the match much easier. To justify this step, information that showed the Maccabi fans to be a high risk was trusted without proper scrutiny.“While Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were falsely characterised as unusually violent, the threat posed by local communities was downplayed and too little care was given to the impact on the Jewish community in Birmingham.”The committee found no evidence that antisemitism was a motivating factor, but clarified the failure to consult the community had “damaged relations”. It also said it found no evidence of a “conspiracy” but it “cannot rule out the suggestion that political pressure played a part in the decision”.In particular, it cites the attendance of councillors with a “stated political aim” that had a “disproportionate opportunity to influence safety advisory group decision-making in a deeply divisive political issue”.The committee made several recommendations to the government and police force, including banning elected politicians from sitting on SAGs, to rebuild trust with the Jewish community.A WMP spokesperson said: “We remain fully committed to learning from these events and have already made early efforts through a series of meetings with key local representatives to repair any damage caused by the loss of confidence that the public has in us.”Councillor John Cotton, the leader of Birmingham city council, welcomed the report, saying: “It is crucial that we all work together to rebuild trust, particularly with Jewish communities and I have already met the interim chief constable to make that clear. I am encouraged by the initial steps he is taking to rebuild trust and confidence.”The Home Office has been contacted for comment.