Dame Karen Bradley

Dame Karen Bradley

Conservative — Staffordshire Moorlands

Speaking in the House of Commons on 26 February 2026

Debate

Maccabi Tel Aviv Fan Ban

Contribution

I thank the shadow Secretary of State for his question, and I agree with what he said. I will give the Minister for Policing and Crime, who was new in her post, credit for coming in front of the Committee and giving us a full account of what happened, but having been a Minister in the Home Office, I cannot believe that somebody did not spot the possibility of this problem and that alarm bells were not ringing. An earlier intervention—privately and behind the scenes, not impacting on operational independence—could have averted this whole problem. It could have been done without anybody knowing that there was a working assumption to ban the away fans, and the match could have gone ahead in the normal way.

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