Ipswich celebrated after beating QPR to seal promotion from the Championship

It's been a great season for Ipswich Town fans, who saw their team do the double over Norwich City in the East Anglian derbies and, oh yes, also win promotion back to the Premier League.

Some might argue that going up in 2024 was the greater achievement, given that the team had been promoted from League One only 12 months earlier.

Others may feel that shrugging off the disappointment of last season's top-flight relegation and getting the club back on the right track is an even greater endorsement of Kieran McKenna's coaching skills.

That relegation followed a run of only one win in their final 19 matches but the Northern Irishman has re-established his reputation this season as one of the best young coaches in the English game.

And he was recently tipped as a potential candidate for the vacancy at AFC Bournemouth before the job was given to Marco Rose.

"Kieran's a very special manager," Ipswich chairman and chief executive officer Mark Ashton recently told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"He's someone who I know is extremely sought after by the majority of the Championship, the majority of the Premier League and top European clubs – he's first-class at what he does.

"I would want Kieran to be here forever. I like him and respect him, I work with him every day, we have a really healthy dialogue, but football works in cycles, nothing lasts forever."

Kieran McKenna celebrates after Ipswich's win over Norwich in April

Ashton has said that "when this club really comes together as one, it's an unstoppable force" – a statement illustrated by the noisy euphoria before and after Saturday's 3-0 win over QPR which sealed second place in the Championship.

The relationships between those running the business and those running their teams is crucial, but togetherness is often in short supply at some clubs.

There are countless examples of what can happen when they are not in sync. Think Tottenham and Chelsea, for example.

And although Ashton and McKenna don't socialise – "I don't have time to socialise", the chairman has said – there is no doubt they are very firmly on the same page.

"I try to give him his space to do what he needs to do, but to be there as a support mechanism, a challenge mechanism, and make sure – almost as a no-excuse culture – that he has everything he needs to do what he needs to do," Ashton added.

"We understand our drivers, there's no holds barred in conversations and I think you get that from mutual respect."

Ashton is a man in a hurry – a firm believer that if you don't make progress fast, you will be overtaken by rivals.

And he has confirmed that talks have already taken place with McKenna about next season with the aim of moving forwards again "at pace".

George Hirst and Leif Davis are survivors from Ipswich's League One promotion team in 2023

There is no doubt that lessons were learned by McKenna during Ipswich's season in the Premier League, only his third full campaign as a head coach.

One charge which could perhaps have been levelled at him was that he showed too much loyalty to players who had served him well previously.

The starting 11 for the 2024-25 season opener against Liverpool at Portman Road, which they lost 2-0, contained six players who also began their final League One game against Fleetwood Town just 15 months earlier – Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, Leif Davis, Massimo Luongo, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin.

Walton, Davis and Burns are all still in the current Ipswich squad, along with striker George Hirst, who also played in that 2-2 draw at Fleetwood.

There was a radical change of personnel at Portman Road last summer when 11 new players were signed, with the help of Premier League parachute money, including Chilean playmaker Marcelino Nunez from regional rivals Norwich for a reported £10m.

It took time for the new-look squad to gel – they did not win any of the opening four league games this season – and there were further additions in January when Anis Mehmeti and Dan Neil arrived.

They have not matched the 2024 team's total of 96 points, nor their 28 wins, nor their goals tally of 92, but that could be a reflection of the extra competitiveness of the Championship this year.

"The players have grown over the course of the season – you look at this last run, this was our eighth game in 26 days, three away games back-to-back, there have been a lot of challenges," McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"They stuck at it and you can't ever underestimate how hard it is to get promoted to the Premier League. It's a great achievement.

"To finish with one loss in 15 games really shows the character of the group really came together by the end."

One surprise in the January transfer window was that Ipswich did not sign a striker to provide competition for Hirst and Ivon Azon – in 2024, they brought in Wales' Kieffer Moore on loan and he provided seven goals to help seal promotion.

Hirst has hit double figures this season, but Azon has scored only five times, and it may be asking a lot to expect them to provide the goals to give Ipswich a chance of staying in the Premier League.

Ipswich managed only 36 in 38 games in the top flight last season and finding someone who can hit the target regularly is surely an absolute must this summer – especially as Jaden Philogene, who has contributed 11 from midfield, will not be afforded as many opportunities to indulge his taste for the spectacular.

There will also be questions about whether Walton should remain first-choice keeper, having played only seven top-flight games, and the solidity of the defence.

"I'm super happy for the football club but I'm happy for the county, it lifts the county, lifts the spirits of people who live in it," singer Ed Sheeran, a minority shareholder at Portman Road, told BBC Look East.

"Ipswich and Suffolk doesn't have a lot of things like this happening so when it happens it's amazing."

Former Town striker Shefki Kuqi believes Ipswich "belong" in the Premier League and said following the final whistle against QPR: "It's a club with great supporters and (it's) almost like a family. For all the players who have played here, it's a special club and it has a big space in your heart."

Kuqi added he is "100% sure" they will acquit themselves better in the Premier League next season because of the lessons of 2024-25.

"They have the feeling now and they have been there last year so I think they are more ready – I think they will be there forever now," Kuqi said.

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Relatives of jailed Iranian human rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee have called for her to be transferred to adequate medical facilities following a sharp reported deterioration of her health.

On Friday her family said the 54-year-old had been taken from her prison in north-west Iran to a local hospital, calling the move a "last-minute" action that may come too late.

Her brother, who lives in Norway, told the BBC on Saturday: "Her blood pressure has dropped sharply, and they haven't been able to stabilise it."

Narges Mohammadi was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. She was arrested in December for her criticism of the authorities.

Last month her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi said she had been found unconscious by fellow inmates at Zanjan Prison in north-west Iran, after suffering a suspected heart attack.

He added that prison officials had refused to transfer her to a hospital despite her history of cardiac, lung and blood pressure problems.

On Friday, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation, run by her family, said she had been transferred to a hospital in Zanjan province "following a catastrophic deterioration in her health".

The statement added that it came "after 140 days of arbitrary detention and the persistent denial of specialised healthcare".

On Saturday, Hamidreza Mohammadi told the BBC: "Her current problems include low blood pressure and a heart attack, but her previous conditions, such as pulmonary embolism (…) and having undergone stenting and angiography, make any treatment by the doctors in Zanjan effectively impossible."

He said his sister should be transferred to a hospital in Tehran "so that her own specialists, who have treated her previously, can take over her care".

The call was echoed by Jorgen Watne Frydnes, head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, who told Reuters news agency that Mohammadi's life remained at risk.

Over her lifetime, she has been arrested 13 times and been sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, according to her foundation.

In 2021, she began serving a 13-year sentence on charges of committing "propaganda activity against the state" and "collusion against state security", which she denied.

In December 2024, she was given a temporary release from Tehran's notorious Evin prison on medical grounds.

She continued campaigning while undergoing treatment and was arrested in the north-eastern city of Mashhad last December after giving a speech at the memorial ceremony of a fellow human rights activist. Her family said she was taken to hospital after being beaten during the arrest.

In early February, Mohammadi was sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to an additional seven-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of "gathering and collusion" and "propaganda activities", her lawyer said.

She was transferred without warning the following week to Zanjan prison and has been allowed only limited communication with her family since then.

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The prime minister has suggested there may be a case for banning some protests, following calls for a suspension of pro-Palestinian marches.

Asked if he wanted tougher policing of language used during marches, or if he wanted to stop some protests altogether, Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter."

Sir Keir said he would always defend the right to protest but he was concerned about the "cumulative" effect of repeated marches on the Jewish community.

It comes after two Jewish men, Shloime Rand and Moshe Shine, were stabbed in Golders Green, London, on Wednesday.

Essa Suleiman, 45, has been charged with three attempted murders.

He is also accused of attacking Ishmail Hussein, a man he had known for around 20 years, in Southwark, in London, on Wednesday.

The Golders Green victims have been discharged from hospital after sustaining serious injuries in the attack, which was declared a terror incident by police.

There have been a string of violent incidents targeting Jewish people in recent months.

A review into public order and hate crime legislation – commissioned by the government after two Jewish people were killed in an attack outside a Manchester synagogue last year – was expected to report back in February, but has not yet been published.

The government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC called this week for a "moratorium" on pro-Palestinian marches because it was currently "impossible" for them not to incubate antisemitism.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis also called for a temporary ban, telling the BBC they had contributed to a "tone of Jew hatred" in the UK.

Asked about these calls, Sir Keir said: "I think it's time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect."

"In relation to the repeated nature of the marches, many people in the Jewish community have said to me, it's the repeat nature, it's the cumulative effect.

"Now, I accept that, which is why we intend to deal with cumulative effects."

Pushed on whether some protests needed to stop altogether, Sir Keir said: "We need to look at what further powers we can take."

Regarding concerns about linking protests to attacks on Jews, he said he would "defend the right of peaceful protest very strongly and freedom of speech".

"I'm not saying, of course, that there aren't very strong, legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza. We all have deep concerns about it."

A campaign group which helped to organise a number of the marches, Stop the War Coalition, said it condemned "all forms of antisemitism and racism" but that it was "wrong" to connect the marches to attacks on Jews.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said Sir Keir was "using the pain and fear of Jewish people to threaten further authoritarian restrictions on peaceful protest".

"This would be the worst response to the attacks in Golders Green and would just produce more division when it's the job of responsible leaders to bring people together", he said.

Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party also warned the response to the "abhorrent" attacks should not restrict civil liberties.

The Liberal Democrats said protests should only go ahead when they are "safe", with police scrutinising each case, and must not then be "hijacked" by people engaging in antisemitic abuse or inciting violence against Jews.

Officers should be "out in force" with the training, equipment and confidence to make arrests quickly, said the party's home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson MP. "We absolutely support the police taking strong action to keep British Jews safe."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said it was "time to ban these marches" or attacks like those seen in Golders Green and Manchester would continue.

"They were given the benefit of the doubt, but it is quite clear they are being used as a cover for promoting violence and intimidation against Jews".

Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said the prime minster's "weak words come far too late" and pledged a "zero-tolerance approach to protesters inciting violence" to ensure British Jews could live without fear.

"Under Tory and Labour governments these marches have not been policed properly, with a blind eye turned to chants that incite violence or support terrorist organisations," he said.

Police in England and Wales can restrict protests in some circumstances, such as by stipulating their route or when they must end, or apply to ban them outright if such restrictions are not enough to prevent "serious public disorder".

Such requests require the approval of the home secretary and are not regularly used. In March, the government approved a police request to ban London's Al Quds Day march – marking the first time a protest march had been banned since 2012.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir said chants like "globalise the intifada" – based on an Arabic word for uprising – were "very dangerous" to the Jewish community and should be prosecuted.

"If you are on a march or a protest where people are chanting, 'globalise the intifada', you do have to stop and ask yourself, why am I not calling this out?" he said. "Why am I on a march where this is the chant?"

The term intifada came into popular use during the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1987.

Jewish groups have described it as a call for violence against Jewish people, while pro-Palestinian groups have said it is a call for peaceful resistance to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and actions in Gaza.

In December, the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police said they would arrest those using it in chants or on placards following the attack on a Jewish festival on Australia's Bondi Beach.

The prime minister – who was heckled with chants of "Jew harmer" when he visited Golders Green on Thursday – was also asked about criticism from the Jewish community that the government had not done enough to keep them safe.

He said he recognised "the depth of feeling" and that many Jews were "feeling very scared", saying: "I'm not here to criticise that in any way."

But he said it was "not right to say we haven't done anything", pointing to enhanced police security in areas like Golders Green which had "been in place for some time".

The government has also announced increased funding for protecting Jewish communities.

Update 2 May: This story has been amended to reflect that the suspect Essa Suleiman has been charged with the attempted murder of Ishmail Hussein.

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