Declassified UK: Starmer’s ridiculous own goal

Posted: 24th October 2025

Starmer’s ridiculous own goal

This week, the full weight of the UK government lined up behind supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli football team due to play against Aston Villa in Birmingham next month.

Maccabi’s fanbase is notoriously violent and racist. In Amsterdam last year, supporters attacked Muslims on the street, tore down Palestine flags, and chanted “death to Arabs”.

The fans have also been filmed singing: “Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there!”

It is unsurprising therefore that West Midlands Police, following consultation with its Safety Advisory Group, classified the match as “high risk” and prohibited Maccabi fans from attending.

The British public broadly agreed with the move. A poll showed 42% thought it was the right decision against 28% saying it was not. Indeed, Birmingham is one of the most diverse cities in Britain, with around a third of its residents describing themselves as Muslim.

But the Labour government moved swiftly to overturn the ban, with UK prime minister Keir Starmer calling it “the wrong decision”.

“We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets”, he wrote. “The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation”.

Starmer’s statement was clearly intended to suggest that it was the Maccabi fans that were at risk from violence rather than the local community in Birmingham.

And culture secretary Lisa Nandy went even further.

She told the Commons on Monday that the government was “united in saying that we will find the resources” to facilitate the Maccabi fans pending a fresh risk assessment from the police.

Remarkably, this statement was issued the day after Maccabi’s derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv had been cancelled due to an outbreak of fan violence.

“What is astonishing in this case is that it is unprecedented in modern times for all away fans to be banned because of the behaviour of a small minority”, Nandy added.

What’s actually astonishing is that the Labour government batted so strongly for Israeli football fans with a clear record of hooliganism, racism, and violence, with Nandy even lying to parliament in the process.

In fact, it is far from unprecedented for away fans to be banned from football matches in Britain. This was the case for a Legia Warsaw fixture against Aston Villa in 2023 as well as a Rangers versus Napoli game the year prior.

And now, less than a week after Labour sought to whip up another moral panic about antisemitism, it has emerged that the police’s intelligence assessment concluded it was the Maccabi fans who “were considered likely to be the perpetrators of trouble”.

The government was clearly aware of this assessment but opted to mislead parliament and the public, apparently in order to appease Israel and its influential supporters in Britain.

And for what?

Maccabi have now announced that they won’t be selling any away tickets for the game, putting the issue to bed, at least for now. This marks another own goal for Starmer’s increasingly unpopular government – and perhaps the most ridiculous one yet.

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