Speeches by Reid.

“I will tell you exactly what I mean. On 7 October it was minuted that there was “an absence of intelligence”. The SAG chair notifies you that you need a clearer rationale for the decision to ban Israeli fans. That was required for legal reasons. On the 16th, the information/intelligence is provided in the form of the m…”

“That is not credible. It is not credible. The basis upon which the decision was made was not minuted at all.”

“I completely agree with you. In that case, do you think it was appropriate that councillors who were campaigning publicly to stop the football game in its entirety were on the SAG, which made the decision to ban away fans? Is that legally and morally appropriate?”

“In terms of community relations and political influence, you did not have any bilateral communication with anyone in the community with a history of antisemitism and extremist beliefs, as far as you are aware.”

“You will know what a difficult time this is for the Jewish community in light of the huge surge in antisemitic hate incidents. There were the murders in Manchester. Since this decision was taken, we have had the horrific event on Bondi Beach. Was that not at the forefront of your mind at any point when you were making …”

“Are there any ongoing investigations into the conduct of those councillors on the SAG?”

“That is absolutely outrageous.”

“I appreciate that you do not want to trawl through people’s social media. Who would want to do that? However, in a case like this, which has such huge public scrutiny on it, were you not concerned that such councillors had sat on the SAG, went to a meeting and then recused themselves, rather than you taking the moral a…”

“What I am getting from this so far is that there is a range of intelligence and information sources. Correct me if I am wrong, but it feels like what you have done in that process is suppressed information and intelligence that is not consistent with the decision you made, and released and published information that su…”

“That was after the decision.”

“Who appoints the councillor members of the SAG?”

“After the Prime Minister raises the issue publicly and you have to come to the Home Affairs Select Committee twice, you have not read the minutes where the decision was made.”

“Specifically, what was the clincher, other than the conversation that you had with the Dutch police and the googling of information?”

“I will tell you what I am struggling with. The main source of intelligence is from a private conversation with the Dutch police, which they are denying the contents of. They have publicly doubled down on that since this news was published. That is your main source of intelligence. You are willing to share publicly that…”

“You talk about this intelligence flow. I am just trying to get a sense of what that intelligence flow and information looks like. From everything that we have read and seen, it boils down to one conversation that was not minuted and some inaccurate information about the football team in question. Can you put us right? …”

“I am saying that circulating that information did not happen. You did decide to publicly release the decision and the private conversation that you had with the Dutch police, which was not minuted, but you have suppressed the report that is in the Times today. You did not send that to us, nor did you release it to the …”

“Looking at the SAG as a body that takes decisions, did you at any point notice or raise the fact that there were two councillors on that decision-making body who had a history of extremist and antisemitic views? Did that cross your path or your radar at any point?”

“I am not asking about the process. I do not want to know about the process. I am asking for specific bits of information and intelligence. If you are saying to me that we are not entitled to that or it is private and confidential, please do say that.”

“It was not in this case, was it?”

“You did not meet them.”