LONDON — Keir Starmer condemned a decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from attending a Europa League match in England against Aston Villa next month over safety concerns.

The British prime minister said the decision by local authorities in Birmingham to halt the attendance of supporters of the Israeli soccer team on Nov. 6 was “wrong.”

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

West Midlands Police said the ban — which has sparked widespread domestic and international condemnation — was “based on current intelligence and previous incidents,” including violent clashes between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax supporters in Amsterdam last year.

Five people were taken to hospital and more than 60 people were arrested after two days of unrest in the Dutch capital, which city officials described as a “toxic combination of antisemitism, hooliganism, and anger” over the war in Gaza.

“Based on our professional judgement, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety,” the West Midlands Police force said in a statement Thursday. “We remain steadfast in our support [for] all affected communities, and reaffirm our zero-tolerance stance on hate crime in all its forms.”

European football governing body UEFA said: “In all cases, the competent local authorities remain responsible for decisions related to the safety and security of matches taking place on their territory.”

Divided response

But the decision has already triggered fury from the Israeli government. Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar branded it “shameful.”

In the U.K., Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch said it was a “national disgrace” that “sends a horrendous and shameful message: there are parts of Britain where Jews simply cannot go.”

Shadow Culture Minister Saqib Bhatti told Times Radio Friday morning that the ban “paints Birmingham in a terrible light … if you’re a West Midlands citizen who’s Jewish, what are you thinking right now?”

Ed Davey, leader of Britain’s centrist Lib Dems, lambasted the “serious mistake” and called for a reversal. “You don’t tackle antisemitism by banning its victims,” Davey added.

MPs from the pro-Gaza Independent Alliance in parliament have backed the ban. Independent MP Ayoub Khan, who represents Birmingham Perry Barr, told the BBC: “We’re talking about violent fans and I think the prime minister should stay out of operational matters. That’s not a matter for him sitting in No. 10 Downing Street.”

Fellow Independent MP Iqbal Mohamed thanked “all who put the safety of Aston Villa fans, Birmingham residents snd [sic] the British public above the Zionist and political pressure to let Israeli hooligans and terrorists run riot in our country.”

Stepping in

The row comes at a particularly sensitive time in the U.K.

Earlier Thursday, Starmer had pledged an additional £10 million to protect Britain’s Jewish community after a terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue this month left two Jewish people dead.

Starmer’s direct intervention also raises the stakes for the British government, which must now find a way to defuse the row.

Culture Minister Ian Murray confirmed Friday morning that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, responsible for the sport brief in the U.K., would meet with the Home Office to “see if there’s a way through this.”

He told Sky:  “We can’t allow this to happen. We can’t allow a country to become a place where we’re excluding people from public events.”

Murray insisted the government still had “absolute faith” in West Midlands Police and denied the Cabinet was involving itself in operational decisions for the police.

Labour’s West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, who holds responsibility for overseeing police services, called Friday for an “immediate review” about whether the decision was “appropriate, necessary, justified, reasonable and … proportionate.” The review, he said in a statement, must include consideration of “alternative options.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO Jack Angelides told the BBC there had been no correspondence from British officials making clear that fans were officially banned, but praised the communication with club Aston Villa.

He said the news had been “met with some dismay about what this potentially is signaling.”