𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A scandal-hit police force vowed to “rebuild confidence” after apologising over intelligence blunders and accusations of appeasing Islamist mobs.

West Midlands Police insisted none of the “errors” over the Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv match were “done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination”.

But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she has lost confidence in the force’s Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, after falsified intelligence led to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned from attending the game.

Ms Mahmood said the force “overstated” the threat posed by Israeli football fans whilst underplaying the risk from local Islamist mobs ahead of the match.

A police watchdog probe into the scandal found the intelligence was “exaggerated” in some cases, whilst in others it was “untrue”.

But Labour Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster last night refused to sack the Chief Constable.

And the force issued a grovelling apology tonight, declaring: “We continue to actively engage and support HMICFRS’s inspection.

“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.

“West Midlands Police is an anti-discriminatory organisation and our planning for this football match was always about public safety of all communities.

“We continue to focus on protecting the public of West Midlands and improving our services, as we have done relentlessly during the last several years.

“We will now work tirelessly to rebuild confidence in West Midlands Police.”

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said: “The letter is not the final HMICFRS report. It describes how the Chief Inspector’s views may ‘develop or change’ as more information is gathered.

“I have listened to the Home Secretary’s statement in the House of Commons and the questions that followed.

“I await the Home Affairs Select Committee report.

“It is my statutory duty to hold the Chief Constable to account for the totality of policing in the West Midlands.

“In order to give all these issues full and proper consideration, I will be taking this matter to a meeting of my Accountability and Governance Board, held in public, on Tuesday 27 January 2026 and asking questions of the Chief Constable.

“In consideration of these matters, it is vital that all involved act in accordance with due process and the law at all times.”

It comes after Ms Mahmood told MPs: “What is clear from this report is that, on an issue of huge significance to the Jewish community in this country, and to us all, we have witnessed a failure of leadership that has harmed the reputation and eroded public confidence in West Midlands Police and policing more broadly.

“Faced by a game of such importance, the Chief Constable of the force, Craig Guildford, should have ensured more professional and thorough work was done.

“As Sir Andy himself says: The shortcomings detailed in his report are: Symptomatic of a force not applying the necessary strategic oversight and not paying enough attention to important matters of detail including at the most senior levels.

“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.

“It has been, as I understand it, over 20 years since a Home Secretary last made such a statement.

“But on the evidence provided by Sir Andy Cooke, the Chief Inspector of Policing, that is now the case.”

The leader of Birmingham City Council, Cllr John Cotton, said Guildford must quit.

He 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 learned and implemented. I believe that the Chief Constable should stand down so that this vital work can begin at once.”

Home Secretary Ms Mahmood said a police watchdog report concluded police “overstated the threat posed by the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans” whilst underplaying the “risk” posed by Islamist mobs in Birmingham.

Police watchdog Sir Andy Cooke found that West Midlands were guilty of “confirmation bias”, seeking only evidence to support their 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.

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.

The Labour Home Secretary slammed the intelligence failures.

She said: “The West Midlands Police engagement with the Dutch police is one of the most disquieting elements of Sir Andy’s report.

“The summary, provided as evidence to the Safety Advisory Group ahead of their crucial meeting on the 24th October was inaccurate.

“Claims including the number of police officers deployed, links between fans and the Israeli Defense Forces, the targeting of Muslim communities, the mass tearing down of Palestinian flags, attacks on police officers and on taxi drivers were all either exaggerated or simply untrue.”

And the Home Secretary will reintroduce powers to allow her to sack chief constables.

Mr Guildford admitted his force used AI to find evidence of trouble involving the Israeli team.

And it justified banning fans after the AI search found social media posts about violence at a fictitious match involving West Ham United on November 9 2023.

That day, West Ham were playing against Greek side Olympiacos. Maccabi Tel Aviv, meanwhile, were playing in Lublin, Poland.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is a shameful episode.

“West Midlands police had evidence that Islamist extremists based in Birmingham planned to attack Maccabi Tel Avi fans.

“Let’s call it what it is. It is vicious antisemitism. And we cannot allow violent Islamists to impose their will on our country.

“Yet that is exactly what West Midlands police – through weakness and through fear – allowed to happen.

“They should have confronted the Islamist extremists.

“They capitulated to the Islamist mob by banning the Maccabi fans.

But it gets worse. The West Midlands police then tried to hide what they had done. 

“They fabricated a claim that it was the Maccabi fans who were the dangerous ones. 

“They claimed a previous game in Amsterdam had led to violence by Maccabi fans.   This claim was a pack of lies from start to finish.”

Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said: “Shabana Mahmood is right to withdraw confidence in Craig Guildford, it’s the only responsible decision left.

“The Chief Constable’s handling of the Maccabi Tel Aviv ban has been defined by evasions, contradictions and a disturbing attempt to justify the unjustifiable after the fact.

“Policing depends on public trust, and that trust collapses when senior officers mislead Parliament and manufacture a narrative to cover their mistakes. This was not about safety, it was about capitulation: punishing law-abiding Israeli fans because extremists threatened violence against them. That is a grotesque inversion of justice.

“If the Home Secretary has no confidence in Guildford, he cannot cling on for another day. He should resign immediately, and the Government must ensure this kind of failure is never repeated.”

A report on the scandal by the police watchdog, Sir Andy Cooke, was handed to Shabana Mahmood on Wednesday morning.

Mr Guildford wrote in a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee: “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.

“Both Asst Chief Constable [Mike] O’Hara and I had – up until Friday afternoon – understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google. This will be further explained in the additional material being provided to the committee.

“I would like to offer my profound apology to the committee for this error, both on behalf of myself and that of 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.”

The force was told, 16 days before the match, that it was wrong to ban supporters from attending the Europa League fixture.

West Midlands Police initially claimed away fans could not attend because of hooliganism fears, with 500 “hardcore Maccabi supporters” who were “very well organised, un-cooperative and militaristic” accused of carrying out “indiscriminate attacks on Muslim taxi drivers, flag burning, marches and Islamophobic chanting such as ‘Why are there no schools in Gaza, because all the children are dead’” during a previous match in Amsterdam.

But, in a bombshell report, West Midlands Police admitted they actually feared locals were plotting to attack Israeli supporters, with some even preparing to carry weapons.