Image source, PA Media

West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford is facing calls to resign after an interim report highlighted a series of mistakes in the way a decision was taken to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa last year.

Home secretary 'loses confidence'

• Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Commons she has lost confidence in Guildford, describing an interim report by His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary into the incident as "damning"
• Detailing the report, she said West Midlands Police was guilty of "confirmation bias", and that it overplayed the threat posed by Maccabi fans

Police apologise for mistakes

• West Midlands Police says it's "extremely sorry" for its errors, and will work "tirelessly to rebuild confidence", adding: "None of this was done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination"
• Before Mahmood's statement, Guildford admitted an AI tool was responsible for providing incorrect evidence that referred to a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham that never took place - something he previously denied

Calls for police chief to step down

• Birmingham council leader John Cotton said Guildford should step down "for the sake of the city", and West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said the police chief's position has become "untenable"
• The man with the power to dismiss Guildford, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, said he would question Guildford publicly in two weeks, and will follow "due process"

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Maccabi Tel Aviv fans should receive an "appropriate apology" after they were banned from a match against Aston Villa last year, the Israeli embassy in the UK says.

It says "serious failings and conclusions" outlined in today's interim report led to Israeli football fans being "banned rather than appropriately protected".

The ban raised "profound concerns" and "rightly caused deep alarm" within the Israeli and Jewish communities, it adds.

More now from the West Midlands Police's statement.

It says it acknowledges that a report from His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS) "recognises the unintentional nature of our errors".

Here's the rest of that statement:

"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 has just issued a statement acknowledging mistakes were made.

The force also apologises and says it will now "work tirelessly to rebuild confidence".

It adds that "none of this was done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination".

We've just seen a joint statement from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council.

They call on West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, to sack the West Midlands Police chief.

Both groups say they "welcome" Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's expression of "no confidence" in Craig Guildford.

They say the report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) into the issue has "confirmed our long-held concerns" that the force "sought evidence that supported a predetermined conclusion", and failed to "engage with the local Jewish community".

They call on Foster to "exercise his authority" and dismiss Guildford "without delay".

Image source, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

We've heard multiple calls today from senior politicians for the West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford to resign. Earlier the home secretary said she had lost her confidence in him.

We've just had a statement from West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, who is the only person with the power to sack Guildford - in it, he doesn't mention whether he plans to dismiss the senior police officer.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Foster says he recognises "the significant strength of feeling that is shared by many people" over the issue, but that it is "vital" that "due process" is now followed
• He says he will give "careful and detailed consideration" to a letter sent by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Andy Cooke to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, which sets out the chief inspector's "preliminary views"
• Foster notes this is not the final report from the chief inspector, and that Cooke's views "may ‘develop or change’ as more information is gathered"
• The PCC says he is also awaiting the Home Affairs Select Committee report into the matter, and that "in order to give all these issues full and proper consideration" he will be taking the issue to a public meeting on 27 January - where Guildford will be questioned

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster has commented following calls to sack the West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford.

• As a reminder, Foster is the only person that has the power to sack Guildford. Earlier the home secretary said she no longer has confidence in the chief constable

In a statement, he says:

“I acknowledge, recognise and understand the significant strength of feeling that is shared by many people, including myself, in connection with this contentious issue.

“His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary has written a letter to the Home Secretary to set out his ‘preliminary views’, in relation to the match assessment and categorisation carried out by West Midlands Police around the Maccabi Tel Aviv v’s Aston Villa fixture on 6 November 2025.

“I have been sent that letter having had no sight of, or briefing on, its contents before today. I must now give it careful and detailed consideration.

“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.”

The interim report from His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC), Sir Andy Cooke,, external is effectively an update on a review his team are undertaking into West Midlands Police.

He says it's not a final report, he says, but his preliminary views include:

• West Midlands Police had "focused on reducing the risk of short-term disorder and long-term damage to local community relations", Cooke said, but "lacked the necessary foresight to recognise the long-term, global consequences" of its decision-making
• He said there was a lack of effective local community engagement over the decision, and the force had exhibited poor record keeping - including failing to record a video meeting with Dutch police
• Cooke added that "the emphasis with which the force made the case" gave the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) "little or no option but to accept that reducing to zero the ticket allocation for away fans was the only viable course of action to protect the public"
• But, he said, the recommendation to the SAG "should have been subject to greater challenge and consideration" within West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford’s position has become untenable, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker says.

The Labour mayor tells the Local Democracy Reporting Service that confidence in West Midlands Police has been "badly tested", and trust wouldn’t be rebuilt if things remained as they are.

He says: “Look, this has all been really difficult and, honestly, there’s still a lot that hasn’t been properly explained.

“Basic things like the timing, the rationale, what evidence was actually relied on.

“Since the decision to ban away fans was taken, the picture’s kept shifting. Explanations have changed. New information has come out. Some earlier evidence has been walked back."

Ruth Jacobs, chair of the Birmingham and West Midlands Jewish Community, says: "It seems unbelievable to me that AI was ever used in the first place to identify a match that never took place."

Asked about the future of Chief Constable Craig Guildford, after calls from politicians for him to be sacked or step down, Jacobs says there is a diversity of views among those in the community.

"We will leave whatever is going to happen to him, up to him, or the powers that be," she says.

The initial review carried out by the Inspectorate of Constabulary criticised the force for carrying out "little engagement with the Jewish community and none with the Jewish community in Birmingham", before the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was made.

Jacobs says the community were left "horrified" by the ban. "We were very disappointed, very angry and cross about not having been consulted about it from the very beginning, when other communities were consulted," she says.

She adds that "we are going to carry on working closely with police, politicians and community leaders to ensure that lessons are learned and acted upon".

"In the end, the safety and security of all citizens should be the priority ensuring that people are received without prejudice."

During her speech to the Commons, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she intended to restore the power for home secretaries to dismiss chief constables "who fail their communities".

Currently it is only police and crime commissioners who hold the power to dismiss a chief constable, after a change in the law under the Conservative government in 2011.

In a press release after the announcement was made, the Home Office says: "The new laws will hand Home Secretaries statutory powers to force the retirement, resignation or suspension of Chief Constables on performance grounds."

There's little detail shared on exactly how these new laws would work, but the Home Office says the home secretary "pledges to make police leaders accountable to parliament and the public ahead of sweeping police reforms to be announced later this month".

Away from the Commons, and the leader of Birmingham City Council, John Cotton, has joined calls for West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford to quit.

"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," he writes on X.

"I believe that the chief constable should stand down so that this vital work can begin at once."

• For context, the council are also part of Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which deemed the match "high risk" because of unrest during previous Maccabi Tel Aviv matches

The home secretary says she has lost confidence in the West Midlands Police (WMP) Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, after reviewing an independent report into the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from an Aston Villa match last year.

Here's a recap of her statement in the Commons:

• The report - by His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Andy Cooke - is "damning", Mahmood said
• She said WMP "conducted little engagement with the Jewish community and none with the Jewish community in Birmingham"
• The home secretary accused the police of "confirmation bias", saying "rather than follow the evidence the force sought only the evidence to support their desired position: to ban the fans"
• She said a summary of conversations with the Dutch police, after Maccabi played in the Netherlands, was "inaccurate", and that claims were "all either exaggerated or simply untrue"
• In general, Mahmood said, police "overstated the threat posed by the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans while under-stating the risk that was posed to the Israeli fans if they travelled to the area"
• "Sir Andy’s report does not argue that the entire force is failing," Mahmood said, "but... we have witnessed a failure of leadership"
• "I must declare today that the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police no longer has my confidence," she said

Independent MP Ayoub Khan - whose Birmingham Perry Barr constituency covers Aston Villa's stadium Villa Park - says "this is nothing but a witch hunt", and that Chief Constable Craig Guildford has been "thrown under the bus".

As he speaks, shouts of "absolute rubbish" and "disgrace" sound around the Commons.

In response, the home secretary says she is responding to findings made by the independent police inspectorate.

• Khan campaigned for the fans' ban - and called on Uefa, the culture secretary and the West Midlands Police chief to cancel the fixture or "take immediate steps to ensure public safety and community harmony"

Liberal Democrats MP Will Forster calls the recommendation to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans "an incredibly serious mistake".

He adds that "the fact that they covered up their misleading statements is absolutely damning," telling the Commons it risks undermining public trust in the police.

Forster reiterates calls for West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford to leave his post, saying he "needs to consider his position and go, now".

Forster asks the home secretary to make sure that there is an independent investigation at the police force.

Mahmood strongly pushes back, after Philp pointed to a section in the 1996 Police Act which he says would allow the home secretary to act.

The home secretary says that provision was repealed by an update to the law which was passed by the Conservatives in 2011.

She says an explanatory note attached to those reforms explicitly states that a home secretary does not have the power to direct a police and crime commissioner to remove a chief constable - and would be considered by a court in any challenge.

Mahmood accuses Philp of "not being familiar" with how the law is interpreted.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp describes the banning of fans as a "shameful episode", and says West Midlands Police failed to act on the threat of "vicious antisemitism".

He says the force "through weakness and fear" failed to act on potential violence fulled by "Islamist extremism", and says they instead "capitulated" by banning the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

Philp says the force then "fabricated" claims about the Israeli fans, which proved to be a "pack of lies".

The chief constable of the force must be fired, he adds.

Philp challenges Mahmood's position that she does not have the power to sack him, pointing to another law he says would allow her to intervene. "She must stop pretending to have no power and actually act," he adds.

Hard to see how the chief constable can continue in these circumstancespublished at 14:25 GMT

14:25 GMT

Lucy Manning
Special correspondent

That was a damning statement by the home secretary about what she said was a “damning” report.

Her conclusion: that she no longer has confidence in the West Midlands chief constable.

The longer term impact: that she will change the law to take back powers to be able to fire police chiefs.

But the behaviour of West Midlands Police should not be downplayed here.

A police force whose job it is to find evidence, to find the truth, found to have made up evidence - "exaggerated or untrue” - with the report also finding they found the evidence to support their own conclusions.

It’s hard to see how the chief constable can continue in these circumstances.

Continuing her criticism of the police force, the home secretary calls the initial report into the ban "devastating".

Citing the report, she says police acted "in an attempt to avoid long-term damage to local community relations".

The home secretary continues: "If that is the case, what a grossly misguided effort it was".

West Midlands Police didn't support community relations in this case, Mahmood says, instead inadvertently making things worse.

Mahmood says the report shows there was a "failure of leadership" at the top of West Midlands Police, which has eroded confidence in the force and policing more broadly.

She says Chief Constable Craig Guildford is singled out for particular criticism, and the report finds he should have done more to assure the assessment carried out was accurate.

Mahmood says it has been more than 20 years since a home secretary has withdrawn their support from a chief constable.

She adds - as the prime minister said earlier - that home secretaries no longer have the power to dismiss the heads of police forces due to reforms introduced by the Tory government in 2011.

Mahmood says it will be down to the local police and crime commissioner to make that decision - and invites him to consider it. The home secretary adds that she intends to restore the ability of home secretaries to remove chief constables, in cases where there have been persistent failures.