Home secretary Shabana Mahmood says she has no confidence in police chief after Maccabi Tel Aviv football fan ban
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The home secretary has said she no longer has confidence in the chief constable of West Midlands Police after a “damning” report into the force’s decision to ban Israeli football fans from attending a game in the UK.
Shabana Mahmood told MPs a review by a police watchdog into the force showed “confirmation bias” over the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending the match at Villa Park in November.
Ms Mahmood also expressed frustration that she was not able to sack Chief Constable Craig Guildford herself.
The home secretary does not have the power to hire or fire chief constables as this is now held by elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – a role being scrapped by the government.
Ms Mahmood said new statutory powers are planned to allow a home secretary to force the resignation of chief constables on the grounds of their performance.
West Midlands Police has said it will take “immediate action” to rectify problems raised by the police watchdog.
In a statement, the force said it had “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.”
Meanwhile, Simon Foster, the PCC for West Midlands Police, stopped short of firing CC Guildford, saying after Ms Mahmood’s statement in the Commons that the watchdog’s review must be given “careful and detailed consideration”.
He said he would ask questions of the force’s top officer himself at a public meeting of his Accountability and Governance Board on 27 January.
“It is vital that all involved act in accordance with due process and the law at all times,” he added.
What does the report say?
Speaking in parliament, Ms Mahmood outlined the key contents of the report, written by Sir Andy Cooke, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
The cabinet minister said: “The force, we now discover, conducted little engagement with the Jewish community, and none with the Jewish community in Birmingham before a decision was taken.
“Andy describes an approach taken by West Midlands Police that he characterises as, and I quote, ‘confirmation bias’.
“This means that rather than follow the evidence, the force sought only the evidence to support their desired position to ban the fans.”
She said the force failed to speak to police forces in other countries such as Greece, Ukraine and Denmark “where Maccabi Tel Aviv had played more recently and more peacefully”.
Ms Mahmood called the force’s communications with the Dutch police “one of the most disquieting elements” of the report.
She said: “The summary, provided as evidence to the Safety Advisory Group ahead of their crucial meeting on the 24 October, was inaccurate.
“Claims including the number of police officers deployed, links between fans and the Israeli Defence 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.”
Sir Andy’s report also highlighted issues about poor-record keeping and mishandling of sensitive information by the force.
“He shows that the police overstated the threat posed by the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, while understating the risk that was posed to the Israeli fans if they travelled to the area,” she added.
Turning to the issue of the chief constable directly, she accused him of “misleading communications” and a “failure of leadership”, saying this is why she no longer has confidence in him.
But in a letter by Sir Andy to Ms Mahmood, he wrote that he found “no evidence” of antisemitism being the reason why the police force banned fans of the team from attending the match.
What happens now?
In a statement responding to the report, West Midlands Police said it is “extremely sorry” for making mistakes and said it is taking “immediate action to address the matters raised”.
But the force defended itself, saying that “none of this was done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination” and that it “was always about public safety of all communities”.
Meanwhile in Parliament, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Mr Guildford “must be fired”, and accused Ms Mahmood of “pretending to have no power”.
Despite the findings of Sir Andy, he said: “This is a shameful episode. West Midlands police had evidence that Islamist extremists based in Birmingham planned to attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. Let us call that what it is: vicious antisemitism.
“We cannot allow violent Islamists to impose their will on our country, yet that is exactly what West Midlands police, through weakness and fear, allowed to happen.”
But the home secretary hit back that it was the Conservatives who scrapped her ability to fire chief constables in 2011.
Chris Philp accused the home secretary of “pretending” to have no powers to fire Mr Guildford.
John Cotton, a Labour politician and leader of Birmingham City Council, has said Mr Guildford “should stand down” as “confidence needs to be restored in the leadership of West Midlands Police”.
Ayoub Khan, the area’s local MP who campaigned for the ban originally, has said Mr Guildford is “being thrown under a bus” and called it a “witch hunt”.
The Police Federation is supportive of the government’s plan to return the power to sack chief constables back to the home secretary, Sky News understands.
The body, which represents police officers in England and Wales, believes doing so could improve fairness.
Top cop apologised for providing ‘erroneous’ evidence
Earlier on Wednesday, CC Guildford apologised to MPs for giving them “erroneous” evidence about the decision to ban Maccabi fans, blaming the use of AI.
The police force announced in October that supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv would not be able to attend the club’s match against Aston Villa in Birmingham the following month, because it had classified the fixture as high risk based on “current intelligence and previous incidents”, without saying where the threat came from.
Craig Guildford, chief constable of West Midlands Police, giving evidence to MPs earlier this month. Pic: PA
That decision led to an outcry, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressing concern, and senior members of West Midlands Police made to appear twice before MPs to answer questions about the ban.
The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee heard evidence from CC Guildford, as well as others, which led to the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council jointly calling for him to go.
