Overview
- His Majesty’s Inspectorate found confirmation bias and eight inaccuracies in West Midlands Police advice that led to banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, including an AI‑generated reference to a non‑existent West Ham match produced by Microsoft Copilot.
- Chief Constable Craig Guildford apologised to MPs, retracted an earlier claim that a Google search caused the error, and acknowledged the use of Copilot while insisting there was no intention to mislead Parliament.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood declared she no longer has confidence in Guildford and said she will seek new powers to remove police chiefs, which currently rest with locally elected commissioners.
- West Midlands PCC Simon Foster declined to sack Guildford immediately, said he will await further reports, and set a public accountability meeting for January 27 to question the chief constable.
- The review found no evidence of antisemitic intent but criticised poor engagement with Jewish representatives and said police overstated the threat from Israeli fans and exaggerated Amsterdam disorder, prompting fresh calls for Guildford’s resignation from community and political leaders.