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Wes Streeting has said he would be “horrified” if the chief constable of West Midlands police remains in his post “by the end of the day”, describing his behaviour as a “stain on his character”.
There are mounting calls for Craig Guildford, who leads West Midlands police, to resign after a damning report by the chief inspectorate criticised the force’s handling of intelligence used to justify the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a Europa League match in November.
Speaking to Times Radio on Thursday, the health secretary said: “I am absolutely shocked that he is still in post. I genuinely thought that, having misled parliament, that having misled the public, and having had one of his own local MPs, the home secretary, saying she had lost confidence in him, I honestly thought that anyone with integrity would at that point say: ‘I have to resign.’
“The fact that he hasn’t, I really think, is a stain on his character that, if he doesn’t act quickly, he won’t be able to remove. I hope he does the right thing. I will be horrified if he is still in post at the end of the day.”
A report on the Maccabi Tel Aviv ban by Sir Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, found several errors in how the West Midlands force had gathered intelligence on the risks of Maccabi fans coming to Birmingham.
The threat was “greatly exaggerated”, leaving a safety committee that relied on the police intelligence “with little or no option” but to ban them, the report said.
It said the force made misleading statements due to “confirmation bias” and “carelessness rather than any deliberate distortion”, but not due to antisemitism. Nor was it due to bowing to political pressure from those in Birmingham angered by Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.
The report led Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, to say she had lost confidence in Guildford – the first time in 20 years that a home secretary has said this of a serving police officer. But Guildford has so far remained in post.
The only person who can oust the chief constable is the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands, Simon Foster, who said he would consider Cooke’s report, the findings from the home affairs select committee and subject Guildford to public questioning at the end of this month, before he makes his decision.
The West Midlands mayor, Richard Parker, Birmingham city council leader, John Cotton, and several local MPs have called on Guildford to resign.
In response to the report by the inspectorate, West Midlands police apologised for the errors, adding that the force did not deliberately distort evidence used by the council-led safety advisory group, which made the decision to ban away fans.
A letter from the chief constable was published by the home affairs committee on Wednesday, in which Guildford apologised for providing incorrect evidence that was gathered using artificial intelligence.
The force said it was taking “immediate action to address the matters raised in these preliminary findings” of the inspectorate’s report.
