Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah and other North East MPs are presenting an Early Day Motion and petition to parliament about Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup win. The following MPs signed the EDM: Chi Onwurah, Mary Glindon, Emma Lewell-Buck, Sharon Hodgson, Kate Osborne and Ian Lavery. The motion states:
“That this House recognises Newcastle United Football Club’s achievement in winning their first domestic trophy in 70 years; commends the performance of the players, the contribution of manager Eddie Howe and his team, the passion and patience of the fans; and notes the lasting positive impact winning the Carabao Cup will have on the city of Newcastle and Newcastle United supporters all over the world.”
Early Day Motion tabled on 19 March 2025:
Newcastle United FC’s footballing achievement
The petition later presented to parliament by Chi Onwurah states:
“The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to congratulate Newcastle United Football Club on its achievement, and to establish a national award to recognise major group sporting achievements.”
Petition presented to parliament by Chi Onwurah
Hansard: Monday 24 March 2025
Fans and public have pointed out that the extremely well paid players received individual winner’s medals and the club got the Carabao Cup to keep for a year.
Chi Onwurah particularly has been advised by many, including Newcastle fans to use her parliamentary time to talk about issues which affect working class people such as poverty and proposed cuts to disabled people’s benefits.
Petitions about NUFC
The Newcastle Central Labour MP is a frequent presenter of parliamentary petitions about Newcastle United.
In 2018 when the club was still owned by Mike Ashley she said the following in parliament:
“I present this petition with the support of my hon. Friends the Members for Gateshead (Ian Mearns), for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) and for North Tyneside (Mary Glindon), who, like me, are Newcastle United fans and represent Newcastle United fans. It follows on from the “If Rafa Goes We Go” campaign and online petition directed against Sports Direct and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley..”
(The petition) “Declares that football is an integral part of Newcastle upon Tyne’s social and cultural wellbeing; notes that fans of Newcastle United are heavily invested both financially and emotionally in the success of the team; further that the current manager Rafa Benitez needs the support of both fans and the club’s owner; further that this support should include investment in players, training facilities and community engagement; and further that the owner Mike Ashley has not made this support forthcoming.”
“The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons to urge the Government to take action to prevent unscrupulous football club owners from exploiting the clubs, their fans and local communities, with particular reference to Mike Ashley and Newcastle United FC.”
Chi Onwurah
Hansard: Tuesday 24 July 2018
At that time fans were regularly demonstrating against Ashley and calling for his departure. Banners appeared in St James’ Park declaring: ‘SPORTS DIRECT SHAME’ referring to his use of Zero Hour contracts and exploitation of low paid workers at his company.
The above petition also declared: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons to urge the Government to take action to prevent unscrupulous football club owners from exploiting the clubs, their fans and local communities, with particular reference to Mike Ashley and Newcastle United FC.”
It should be noted that Chi Onwurah and other MPs such as Ian Lavery, have had little to say about the ‘unscrupulous’ Saudi state owners and their human rights abuses and their exploitative use of the club and the region for sportswashing purposes despite being urged to by Saudi human rights advocates on a regular basis.
Speaking out about Saudi
In the case of Chi Onwurah, the MP has not always been so reticent when it comes to condemning the Saudi regime for their human rights abuses. Three years before the Saudi state takeover of Newcastle United the MP said the following in parliament:
“Germany has halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The Secretary of State prefers to wait. Is he suggesting that there is some way in which Mr Khashoggi could have met his death in the embassy that would be acceptable to him, and will he accept that whatever the result of the investigation, responsibility for the murder must lie with the autocratic ruler of what has now been shown to be a murderous state?”
Chi Onwurah
Hansard: Monday 22 October 2018
The first signs of a change of attitude by Chi Onwurah and other North East MPs towards the Saudi dictatorship started to be apparent when the takeover was at first blocked.
In July 2021, Chi Onwurah asked Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for DCMS for “greater transparency” and “fair and open decision making” regarding the reasons why the takeover was not happening.
She had already presented a petition to Parliament in September 2020 demanding greater transparency from the Premier League in relation to the takeover. At that point more than 80 MPs across the country had appealed for “transparency”, including the following North East Labour MPs at the time:
The list of other North East MPs who signed the petition is available by clicking on the link below.
Premier League petition to Parliament presented by Chi Onwurah
Whatever the individual reasons of the various MPs who signed the petition, it served to pressurise the government and Premier League and paved the way for the takeover of Newcastle United by the despotic Saudi regime.
However, reacting to criticism at the time of the takeover in October 2021, Chi Onwurah stated: “If you think the Newcastle United takeover will stop me criticising the Saudi Regime you don’t know me and you don’t know Newcastle.”
Onwurah also issued a statement saying that “many of us are horrified by the human rights record of Saudi Arabia which stands in direct opposition to the values of our city.” She also said that “I understand the new owners believe this investment is a sign of change and a desire to open up on the part of Saudi Arabia and I hope that is true.”
Quoted in NUFCFAS statement on Saudi state execution spree
Since then, NUFCFAS, Human rights groups ALQST and FairSquare have written to Chi Onwurah, as well as fellow North East Labour MPs, urging them to speak out on the issue of Saudi human rights abuses.
Neither Onwurah nor any other North East MPs have voiced any public solidarity for specific victims of the Saudi dictatorship since the PIF completed the takeover, apart from vague and generic support for human rights.
It is therefore not surprising that many are questioning the appropriateness of Chi Onwurah’s petition and the Early Day Motion supported by other North East MPs.
A few months before the takeover of the club, Chi Onwurah was still prepared to call out the Saudi regime:
“Yemen is the world’s gravest humanitarian emergency, with 80% of the Yemeni population reliant on humanitarian assistance and protection. If President Biden’s decision to end support for Saudi Arabia’s offensive operations in Yemen was part of his pledge to restore US moral leadership, how would the Minister characterise the UK’s continuing support for and arming of Saudi Arabia —moral indifference, perhaps?”
Chi Onwurah
Hansard: Monday 8 February 2021
What a contrast between then and now.
Meeting with council leader
On 18 February, a delegation of Saudi Human Rights advocates visited Newcastle and met the Council leader Karen Kilgour. They presented a list of eight proposals which if acted upon would enable Chi Onwurah to keep talking about human rights as she promised to do in 2021.
A member of the Saudi delegation was the sister of Manahel al-Otaibi, a young Saudi fitness instructor, jailed for 11 years for posting the hashtag #NoToMaleGuardianship on social media. Manahel has been abused and tortured in prison and is presently ‘disappeared’. Rather than her recent embarrassing parliamentary intervention it would be a better use of Chi Onwurah’s time if she presented a petition to parliament in support of Manahel and other Saudi prisoners of conscience and raised their cases with the Chairman of Newcastle United and Saudi minister, Yasir al-Rumayyan.
Serious questions must be raised about Labour MPs in the North East and their commitment to human rights. Have they remained silent about the terrible oppression of Saudi women, the numerous minors on death row and total suppression of free speech just because the Saudi state owns Newcastle United?
Unless Chi Onwurah and North East MPs start doing their jobs by speaking up for the victims of the regime which owns Newcastle United, then it can only be concluded that they have been well and truly sportswashed.
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