Royal Navy: Caribbean

Debate between Lord Addington and Lord Lemos

Monday 9th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for the question. I am not familiar with the particular problems she referred to, but I am happy to find out more and come back to her.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, can we get some assurance from the Government that any naval ship based out there is doing a worthwhile job and will not get pulled into activities that we might question at home? That is the key thing here. If we are doing things such as supporting people in times of natural disaster, there are limitations on that, and we will not find ourselves enforcing another nation’s whim actions.

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I am very happy to reassure the noble Lord and the entire House on that point. There has been no UK involvement in operations outside our own policy remit, and specific operational activities undertaken by the US military—which I assume is what the noble Lord was referring to—in the Caribbean and the Pacific are a matter for the US. The legality of US actions is a matter for the US. The UK upholds international law, and I reassure the noble Lord that UK exchange officers are segregated from US personnel during specific US operations.

West Midlands Police: Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans

Debate between Lord Addington and Lord Lemos

Wednesday 26th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I will deal first with the question about the timeline and then perhaps respond on the other matters, because it is important that the facts are in the public domain. The United Kingdom Football Policing Unit informed Home Office officials on 2 October that there was a significant risk of disorder involving Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and that one of the options under consideration was to ban Maccabi fans from attending the match. On 16 October, two weeks later, Birmingham City Council, on advice from the safety advisory group, announced its decision, and this was when the Government found out. On 17 October, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner asked the safety advisory group and West Midlands Police to convene a special safety advisory group meeting at the earliest opportunity. However, as I think everybody knows, on 20 October, Maccabi Tel Aviv announced its formal decision to reject any allocation for the Aston Villa fixture. The Government have expressed our disappointment. On the noble Lord’s initial question, of course we would have preferred it to go ahead, and the Prime Minister has made that clear.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, we have had a long and unpleasant experience of football violence in this country, going back a long way. We also have set drills for keeping fans safe and getting them to and from grounds. For a midweek game, there cannot have been any shortage of available forces to support them. Can it be made quite clear that what happened here is totally unacceptable and that anybody who takes information from a foreign police force that has not been verified will not have that position tolerated in the future?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question. I have already made it clear that the Policing Minister has written to West Midlands Police to find out precisely what intelligence it received about what happened in Amsterdam and how that is reflected in the various press reports. On a wider scale, we are looking at how intelligence is provided to safety advisory groups, through a review by HMI. On the noble Lord’s other point, of course, we deplore all kinds of public disorder at football matches.