{"id":246602,"date":"2026-01-19T18:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/246602\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:02:10","slug":"watchdog-investigates-west-midlands-police-over-israeli-fan-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/246602\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog investigates West Midlands Police over Israeli fan ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eleanor LawsonWest Midlands<\/p>\n

\"UKUK Parliament<\/p>\n

Craig Guildford retired on Friday after the home secretary said she had lost confidence in him<\/p>\n

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation into West Midlands Police. <\/p>\n

It follows the retirement of Chief Constable Crag Guildford over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a match with Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

The IOPC said it had received new information in the past 24 hours and had used its “power of initiative” to call-in the matter and independently investigate.<\/p>\n

It will be looking at whether officers and staff have cases to answer for misconduct.<\/p>\n

Guildford’s retirement came after he admitted inaccuracies in evidence to a Commons committee, including a denial the force had used AI to research evidence including a non-existent match between the Israeli club and West Ham.<\/p>\n

IOPC director general Rachel Watson said the watchdog had received new information in the last 24 hours from West Midlands Police around the initial assessment of any potential misconduct.<\/p>\n

“There are many unanswered questions and it’s right for accountability and public confidence for us to independently investigate,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We will now undertake a full assessment of the evidence, and gather more where necessary, to establish if any of the officers may have breached police professional standards in relation to duties and responsibilities.”<\/p>\n

She also said the IOPC had requested more evidence from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).<\/p>\n

The inspectorate issued its own initial findings last week, prompting Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to state she had lost confidence in Guildford.<\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour Party<\/p>\n

Simon Foster said there had been a significant impact on public confidence in regards to the force, which was unacceptable<\/p>\n

In a statement, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said: “These matters have had a significant impact on public confidence, and the confidence of particular communities in the West Midlands. This is unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

“The force know that I expect them to comply with the very highest standards of conduct at all times.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday 27 January, Foster will also host an accountability and governance board where he will consider in public a report he has requested from West Midlands Police, as well as asking the force questions.<\/p>\n

“I acknowledge the continuing and understandable public interest. I will continue to hold West Midlands Police to account,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That is absolute, unconditional and non-negotiable.”<\/p>\n

The commissioner has also faced calls to resign<\/a> over his decision not to sack Guildford.<\/p>\n

Before Monday’s announcement, Stephen Silverman, from the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The police and crime commissioner prevaricated, procrastinated, refused to get rid of Mr Guildford when it was quite clear that that was the only route possible.”<\/p>\n

The campaign’s chief executive, Gideon Falter, added the decision was a “pitiful failure” from Foster.<\/p>\n

Announcing his retirement on Friday, Guildford, 52, did not offer an apology and blamed what he described as the “political and media frenzy” for his decision to step down.<\/p>\n

“I have carefully considered my position and concluded that retirement is in the best interests of the organisation, myself and my family,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It has been the honour of my career serving as the chief constable of West Midlands Police.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eleanor LawsonWest Midlands UK Parliament Craig Guildford retired on Friday after the home secretary said she had lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-246602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}