Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has declared she has lost confidence in West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford, following a damning report that found intelligence used to justify a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was “exaggerated or simply untrue”. The inquiry, ordered by Mahmood and conducted by the policing inspectorate, identified a series of errors in how the force gathered and handled intelligence.
Mahmood stated that the force had a “failure of leadership” that “harmed the reputation and eroded public confidence in West Midlands police and policing more broadly”. She noted that current law, changed under the Conservatives, prevents her from dismissing a chief constable, but she plans to introduce legislation to restore that power to the home secretary.
The report, led by Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Andy Cooke, found that the force failed to engage adequately with the Jewish community before the ban decision. It did not find antisemitism as a motive but blamed confirmation bias, where the force interpreted new information as confirmation of existing beliefs.
Mahmood criticised Guildford’s appearance before the home affairs select committee, where he claimed AI tools were not used to prepare intelligence reports, a claim later refuted by an officer who blamed incorrect evidence on an “AI hallucination”. The force had argued that Dutch police described Maccabi fans as perpetrators of violence in Amsterdam, but Dutch police disputed this, saying key claims clashed with their experience.
The report highlighted that claims about Maccabi fans throwing people into a river were false; it was a Maccabi fan who ended up in the water. Mahmood described the engagement with Dutch police as “one of the most disquieting elements” of the report, noting that claims about police deployments, links to the Israeli Defense Forces, and attacks were exaggerated or untrue.
