UK interior minister has no confidence in police chief after Israeli soccer fan ban

British interior minister Shabana Mahmood says she no longer has confidence in one of Britain’s top police officers after his force recommended Israeli fans be barred from attending an Aston Villa soccer game last year.

The ban, imposed on security grounds, was condemned by both the British and Israeli governments, while Jewish community leaders accused the force of misrepresenting intelligence and undermining public confidence.

“We have witnessed a failure of leadership that has harmed the reputation and eroded public confidence in West Midlands Police and policing more broadly,” Mahmood tells parliament.

Craig Guildford, West Midlands chief constable, has offered his “profound apology” after admitting that an erroneous reference to a fictitious West Ham-Maccabi Tel Aviv match in a report about the decision was generated by Microsoft’s Copilot artificial intelligence tool. He had previously said AI was not used in the report.

His police force has been accused of misrepresenting the threat from Maccabi’s fans to justify the ban recommendation, raising questions about its priorities to different groups in the local diverse community.

“I must declare today that the chief constable of West Midlands Police no longer has my confidence,” Mahmood says, after citing a report that highlighted shortcomings in the force’s decision.

At a parliamentary hearing earlier in January, West Midlands Police said its recommendation was driven by public safety concerns, citing intelligence that some local residents were planning to “arm themselves” against visiting supporters.

However, lawmakers expressed frustration that no contemporaneous documentation was provided and the information only surfaced via a media report on the day of the hearing on January 6.