Speeches by Prinsley.

“Unlike many Opposition Members, I welcome this announcement, for I know that the people of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket will want the Government to get this process right. Does the Minister agree that we are not cancelling anything; we are simply postponing the mayoral elections, so that we can get this right, and so…”

“Given that what happened did happen, what do you think about the Government’s response to what happened?”

“I am a Jewish Labour MP.[2]”

“They are the people who made the decision for the fans not to attend. Is that correct? Chief Constable Guildford indicated assent.”

“But you do understand that this was a politically charged decision, which then led to questions in the House of Commons and input from the Prime Minister, so it must have been obvious to the members of the SAG that this would have a political consequence.”

“The idea that there could have been no political input into the decision that was made is a little bit difficult for us to grasp if there were political figures—elected officials—right at the heart of the decision making. They will no doubt have been influenced by the advice that was coming from the police service, alb…”

“So there are elected councillors sitting on the SAG, from Birmingham city council and the district?”

“Hello. I am Peter Prinsley, the MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, where there is no football club, by the way. Can I ask a little bit about the SAG? What does the SAG consist of? Who are the members of the SAG? How are they appointed?”

“That would be a summary of what has gone on here?”

“Are you trying to say that the facts have slightly changed to fit the decision?”

“I know!”

“It seems to me that you are a uniquely placed individual in this respect: not only are you the Government’s antisemitism adviser, but you have this great expertise in football and football crowds. You took a great deal of care before this episode to do everything that was expected of you. You produced some advice, whic…”

“So had you been making representations to the Government about the risk of the Israeli football fans coming here?”

“And there was also input from the local MP?”

“Thank you very much for coming this afternoon. What do you see as your role in this issue?”

“So when it was established that Maccabi Tel Aviv were coming to play in Birmingham, did you then make further representations to the Government about that?”

“What I am hearing is that the Government, or somebody in the Government, must have been well aware of the likely difficulties before the decision was made to ban.”

“Do you think that they just ignored that?”

“What I am picking up here is that the Government were put in the position of having to deal with a problem after a decision had been made. The SAG in Birmingham decided that fans from Israel should not come to the football match. By the time you were alerted to it, we had a political catastrophe because we had a situat…”

“Thank you for that very candid response. I understand that a brief has been given to a chief inspector to review football policing. What are you hoping to achieve with the review? We have just spoken about this, but we think that the SAG process is probably not working right, and you have said that you are also looking…”