A pro-Gaza MP who welcomed the
ban on Israeli football fans from Villa Park previously cast doubt on the atrocities committed in the Oct 7 attacks.
Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, cast doubt on claims that women were raped during the Hamas-led massacre in 2023.
His comments have come to light as he faces a backlash for celebrating the decision to bar
Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending their team’s Europa League match against Aston Villa on Nov 6.
Fans of the Israeli club were informed of the ban on Thursday following a recommendation from
West Midlands Police to
Birmingham’s safety advisory group.
Sir Keir Starmer has led criticism of the ban.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said MPs who celebrated it were “absolutely disgusting”.
Mr Khan, 52, who led a petition to boycott the match, said: “From the moment that the match was announced, it was clear that there were latent
safety risks that even our capable security and police authorities would not be able to manage fully.
“With so much hostility and uncertainty around the match, it was only right to take drastic measures.”
In October 2023, when he was a Liberal Democrat councillor for Aston, Mr Khan posted a video of himself on social media appearing to question the extent of atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel.
In a now-deleted TikTok video posted just weeks after the Oct 7 attack, he responded to claims by Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, that Hamas fighters were carrying “official al-Qaeda material” that showed how to build a weapon with cyanide.
Mr Khan said: “Sky has interviewed the Israeli president who claims that the
Hamas militants were carrying with them very important documents.
“In fact, they were instructions, instructions not how to behead babies or rape women, which I’ve yet to see evidence [of] and I’m afraid nothing has come to light.”
About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct 7 attacks. Evidence suggests sexual assaults and gang rapes also took place at the Nova music festival site, including a UN report which found Hamas attackers
raped women’s corpses.
At the time of Mr Khan’s post, numerous eyewitness accounts of Hamas rapes had appeared in media reports.
Israeli military officials claimed in the aftermath of the attacks that babies had been beheaded. This claim has never been verified.
The Lib Dems launched an investigation into Mr Khan’s conduct after receiving a complaint and offered him anti-Semitism training.
However, Mr Khan initially refused to take the training, insisting his posts were not offensive.
He said at the time: ”So let me make my position absolutely clear. At no stage have I considered my material on TikTok offensive, nor have I agreed with anyone that I would undergo a training course in anti-Semitism. There is simply no need.”
It is not clear whether he ever took the anti-Semitism training.
Pro-Gaza independent MPs' remarks on Israel
Shockat Adam, MP for Leicester South
In September, Shockat Adam was criticised for saying the Israel Defense Forces had “blood-soaked tentacles” in a speech in the Commons.
Critics said the remarks echoed longstanding anti-Semitic stereotypes because octopuses have historically been used to represent claimed Jewish power, including by the Nazis.
In November 2024, Mr Adam hosted a pro-Palestinian campaign group in Parliament despite its director, Majed al-Zeer, being accused by the US treasury of being “one of the senior Hamas members in Europe”.
During the October 7 terror attack, a campaign group run by Mr Adam’s brother, Ismail Patel, planned a march through Leicester.
The Friends of al-Aqsa organisation was included on a poster promoting the march – which took place in 2023.
Adnan Hussain, MP for Blackburn
In May 2024, Adnan Hussain compared the war in Gaza to the Holocaust, saying on Facebook: “If you've ever wondered what you'd have done during atrocities like the holocaust [sic], know that, you'd have done exactly what you're doing right now.”
According to the International Definition of Anti-Semitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” is an example of anti-Semitism.
In August 2025, he said in a post on X that Jews should have been “given land” in Europe after the Holocaust – not Israel.
Later that month, he said in another post that Israel was “ethnically cleansing” and “committing genocide against the Palestinians”.
At a Free Palestine rally in 2014, Mr Hussain gave a speech that claimed Israel’s military operation in the summer of that year was a “holocaust” and called for a boycott of companies that supported the country.
“They let Gaza burn, they hate Gaza. Now let’s make Israel burn,” he said.
Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr
In August 2025, Ayoub Khan was accused of a “grotesque minimisation of terrorism” after equating Hamas hostage Emily Damari’s experience of being held captive to the lives of people in Gaza.
He had written on X on July 30: “One would have expected her to understand that ordinary Palestinians who have been held hostage for decades in what is effectively an open-air prison – deserve the same dignity, justice and freedom! Stop conflating!”
In June, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, accused Mr Khan of “aligning himself with anti-Semites”.
He responded to the Government’s condemnation of Glastonbury performer Bobby Vylon’s “Death To The IDF” chants by asking why there was no ministerial statement when Israeli football fans chanted “Death To Arabs.”
Before becoming an MP, Mr Khan was a Liberal Democrat councillor for Aston on Birmingham city council.
He declined to take anti-Semitism training over TikTok videos in which he said he “has a problem with the credibility” of accounts about the Oct 7 massacre and said Suella Braverman, the then home secretary, was “misguided” to say the “From the river to the sea” chant was anti-Semitic.
Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley
In July, Iqbal Mohamed said Israel was committing a “holocaust” against Palestinians.
He posted on X: “The Israeli gov't & the IDF, brazenly aided & abetted by the US, UK, & many EU & other states, are committing a pre-declared live-streamed genocide/holocaust on the Palestinians with the latest plans of putting 2million people into concentration camps.”
The Jewish Leadership Council responded by saying: “This egregious accusation isn’t a lazy slip of the tongue but a repeated and calculated act to taunt Jews and accuse us of the very crime of which we were victims. It’s anti-Semitic and should be retracted.”
In October 2024, he used his maiden speech to claim there was a “genocide” in Gaza.
He told the Commons: “I implore the UK Government to take a moral and legal lead and to do everything in their power to uphold the UK’s obligation to halt the genocide and end the 76 years of unlawful occupation.”
On Thursday, he claimed that allowing Israeli fans to attend the Aston Villa match would see “terrorists run riot”.
Mr Khan was one of several Independent MPs elected at the 2024 general election who stood on a pro-
Gaza platform in areas with high Muslim populations.
In July, he took up a role as director of Your Party, the new hard-Left political party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
Mr Khan was approached for comment but did not respond.
