Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has declared she has lost confidence in West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford following a “damning” report into the force’s handling of intelligence that led to a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a match against Aston Villa. The inquiry, ordered by Mahmood and conducted by the policing inspectorate, found that intelligence used to justify the ban was “exaggerated or simply untrue”.
Mahmood stated that the force had experienced 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, introduced under the Conservatives, prevents her from dismissing a chief constable, but she plans to introduce legislation to restore this power to the home secretary.
Sir Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, found that the force had failed to engage adequately with the Jewish community before the ban decision. The report did not find evidence of antisemitism but attributed the failings to confirmation bias, where the force interpreted new information to support its existing beliefs.
Mahmood criticised Guildford for claiming during a select committee appearance that AI tools were not used to prepare intelligence reports, a claim later refuted by an officer who blamed an “AI hallucination”. The force had argued that Maccabi fans posed a threat based on information from Dutch police about the team’s previous match in Amsterdam, but Dutch police disputed key claims, including that fans had thrown people into a river.
Mahmood emphasised that the report showed the force overstated the threat from Maccabi fans while understating the risk to Israeli fans. She said this was the first time in two decades a home secretary had declared no confidence in a police leader.
