Craig Guildford on the brink after admitting West Midlands Police used AI to ban Israeli fans
A Corbynite policing chief has refused to sack the chief constable at the centre of the Maccabi fan ban row despite Shabana Mahmood declaring she has lost confidence in him.
The Home Secretary indicated that Craig Guildford should leave his post as head of West Midlands Police after what she described as a “damning” report on his force’s handling of the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans travelling to a match against Aston Villa in November.
However, Simon Foster, who as the West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) is the only person who can sack Mr Guildford, refused to take any decision until he had given the findings “careful and detailed consideration”.
His move threatens a split between Ms Mahmood, who represents the Blairite Labour Right, and Mr Foster, a former chairman of a local Momentum branch, who backed Jeremy Corbyn as the party leader.
In the wake of the row, Ms Mahmood announced on Wednesday that she was introducing new powers to give the Home Secretary the authority to sack police bosses, who can currently only be fired by police and crime commissioners.
The chief constable has so far rebuffed mounting calls to resign, including from his own mayor and council leader, with sources close to him suggesting he was “lawyering up” and would fight any attempt to remove him.
The interim report by Sir Andy Cooke, chief inspector of constabulary, found the force fabricated and retrofitted “exaggerated and untrue” evidence to justify the ban on the Israeli fans, made misleading public statements and failed to engage with the Jewish community.
Mr Guildford’s force has been accused of basing the ban on political motivations rather than genuine safety concerns and misleading Parliament with his version of events.
The Home Secretary told MPs: “The ultimate responsibility for the force’s failure to discharge its duties on a matter of such national importance rests with the chief constable, and it is for that reason that I must declare today that the chief constable of West Midlands Police no longer has my confidence.”
Ms Mahmood said she expected Mr Foster to “follow all due process” as he considered Mr Guildford’s future.
However, Mr Foster suggested no decision would be taken until the chief constable had been questioned at a board meeting on Jan 27 in order to “act in accordance with due process and the law at all times”.
He said that the Home Affairs Committee had yet to conclude its investigation and it was his statutory duty to account for the “totality of policing” in the West Midlands.
Mr Foster added that the final report was still being drafted and could “develop or change”.
A staunch Corbynista, Mr Foster regularly posted “#JC4PM” during the general election campaign of 2019, and when Sir Keir Starmer took over as Labour leader in 2020, he wrote on social media: “Thank you Jeremy Corbyn for all you have done for our party. Courage, fortitude, principle and resilience. Let us all continue to campaign together for economic and social justice.”
Mr Foster was previously chairman of the South Birmingham Momentum Group, a local branch of the socialist organisation which supported his campaign to be elected West Midlands PCC.
His refusal to sack the chief constable has prompted demands for Ms Mahmood to force him to take action.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: “This has already taken far too long. If the Labour police and crime commissioner won’t fire the chief constable, Shabana Mahmood needs to order him to do so. Saying she’s lost confidence isn’t enough. It’s time to show the Labour Government actually takes this seriously.”
Sir Grant Shapps, the former home secretary, said Mr Foster “should realise the game is up and it will reflect badly on him if he doesn’t act”, while Dame Priti Patel, another former home secretary, said “if he won’t resign, he must be swiftly sacked”.
Their interventions came hours after Ms Mahmood declared that a “failure of leadership” had “harmed the reputation and eroded public confidence in West Midlands Police and policing more broadly”.
The interim report into the West Midlands Police ban of Maccabi fans found that the force conducted “little engagement” with the Jewish community and was guilty of “confirmation bias”, seeking only evidence to support its desire for a ban rather than “following the evidence”.
This saw the force focus on a Dutch game where there had been violence, but not more peaceful matches in Greece, Ukraine and Denmark.
Ms Mahmood said the most “disquieting” elements of the report were “exaggerated or simply untrue” claims by West Midlands Police about alleged violence by Maccabi fans in Holland.
Inaccurate claims included links between fans and the Israeli Defense Forces, the targeting of Muslim communities, the mass tearing down of Palestinian flags, and attacks on police officers and on taxi drivers.
Sir Andy also found that the force made a series of “misleading” public statements which overstated the threat posed by Maccabi fans while understating the risk posed to the Israeli fans.
Ms Mahmood also expressed frustration that she was not able to sack Mr Guildford herself, a power she said was removed from the home secretary’s remit during the coalition government’s reforms, which introduced police and crime commissioners in 2011.
‘Damaging failure of leadership’
She pledged to introduce new statutory powers allowing a home secretary to force the resignation of chief constables on the grounds of their performance.
“Home secretaries should, in future, have this power restored to them,” she said. “When a chief constable is responsible for a damaging failure of leadership, the public rightly expect the home secretary to act, and I intend to restore their ability to do so.”
She added: “I can announce today that this Government will soon reintroduce the home secretary’s power to dismiss chief constables in light of significant or persistent failings and that this will be part of the Government’s upcoming white paper on wider police reform with legislation to follow.
“I do not expect this power to be used often, but I think it must be available at those rare moments when it is warranted.”
In the wake of the statement, Mr Guildford faced demands from both his own town and across the political spectrum to quit.
Richard Parker, the Labour mayor of the West Midlands, said Mr Guildford should quit. “The explanation has shifted over time, evidence has been pulled back and the report adds to my own concerns,” he said.
“Public confidence in policing rests on openness and accountability, and that confidence has taken a serious knock. At this stage, it’s difficult to see how trust can be restored under the current leadership. I don’t believe the chief constable can continue in post.”
Laurence Turner, the Birmingham Northfield MP, said: “It is clear the chief constable’s position is untenable.”
He also called for measures to be put in place to ensure the “highest operational standards” for policing in the city.
Antonia Bance, Labour MP for Birmingham’s neighbouring Tipton and Wednesbury constituency, said: “It is clearly time for the chief constable to go. It is right that we expect a high standard of community engagement across all of our senior public servants and this has clearly not been met in this case.”
John Cotton, the Labour leader of Birmingham city council, said: “For the sake of the city and region, confidence needs to be restored in the leadership of West Midlands Police, so that lessons can be learnt and implemented. I believe that the chief constable should stand down so that this vital work can begin at once.”
On the other hand, Ayoub Khan, the independent pro-Gaza MP for Birmingham Perry Barr constituency, which covers Villa Park, claimed Mr Guildford was the victim of a “witch hunt”.
He told the Commons: “Despite all the rhetoric we have heard in this House, Brummies know the truth: that this is nothing but a witch hunt, and the chief constable is being thrown under the bus.
“The Home Secretary knows all too well that West Midlands Police have a reputation for working with all communities. They have never caved into community pressure.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism also called for the West Midlands Police chief constable to resign, or be sacked if he refuses to stand down.
Gideon Falter, its chief executive, said that “clearly the chief constable and, I emphasise, also other police chiefs in the force must be fired if they do not resign”.
He called for action against “Islamist intimidation” of the police, adding: “What has happened in Birmingham is a test case for the British state. It is no exaggeration to say that what happens next could well determine the future health of British society if we do not stand up to blatant radicalism like this.”
Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi, the former Tory chancellor who defected to Reform on Monday, added that Mr Guildford “must resign today”.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Guildford admitted that the force had used artificial intelligence to find evidence of previous trouble with the Israeli team.
The AI search found social media posts about a non-existent match between Maccabi and West Ham United, which the force used as part of its justification for banning Israeli fans from travelling to the Aston Villa game.
Mr Guildford previously denied to MPs on the Home Affairs Committee that his force had used the AI system to search the internet at a hearing in December.
In a letter to Dame Karen Bradley, the committee chairman, Mr Guildford said he became aware on Friday that the fictional match had been inaccurately included in an intelligence report.
‘No intention to mislead’
The report incorrectly stated that Maccabi last played a match in the UK as part of the Europa Conference League on Nov 9 2023, despite the fact they were playing another game on that date.
Mr Guildford wrote: “In preparation for the force response to the [HM Inspectorate] inquiry into this matter, on Friday afternoon, I became aware that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match arose as a result of the use of Microsoft Copilot.”
He continued: “I would like to offer my profound apology to the committee for this error, both on behalf of myself and that of [assistant chief constable Mike] O’Hara. I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending [the Home Affairs Committee].
“My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the committee.”
Copilot is a Microsoft AI system that can be used to answer questions, analyse documents, and help draft reports and emails.
In 2024, Microsoft announced a five-year deal with the Government, which it claimed would improve civil servants’ productivity.
Mr Guildford had been questioned about the West Ham claim by MPs on the select committee on Dec 1.
Paul Kohler, a Liberal Democrat MP, put it to Mr Guildford that his force “did an AI search, got something about West Ham and just whacked it into the...?”.
He replied: “No, not at all. We do a very comprehensive assessment.”
Nick Timothy, the Tory MP who has led calls for Mr Guildford to quit, said on X: “Another day, another confession from West Midlands Police.
“Despite denials at two separate hearings, it turns out they did use AI to produce their dodgy ‘intelligence’ dossier. Their account of their conduct in getting Israeli fans banned from Villa Park continues to unravel.”
The AI admission came weeks after The Telegraph revealed that Dutch officials had accused Mr Guildford of talking “nonsense” in his justification for banning Israeli fans.
Mr Guildford had claimed West Midlands Police recommended banning Maccabi fans after receiving intelligence from Amsterdam about their behaviour at a previous game.
However, Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, has since told MPs that the claims were “nonsensical” and did not match the published accounts of the fixture in 2024, casting doubt on the police version of events.
Documents published last week revealed that the West Midlands force was warned about residents in the predominantly Muslim community planning to arm themselves if Maccabi fans attended.
West Midlands Police said it would take “immediate action” to rectify the problems raised in the report but made no mention of Mr Guildford’s future.
The statement from the force said: “We have received a copy of the preliminary review today and acknowledge that this recognises the unintentional nature of our errors. We are extremely sorry for the impact these have had on individuals and their communities.
“We are taking immediate action to address the matters raised in these preliminary findings. We know that mistakes were made but reiterate the findings that none of this was done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination.”