West Midlands Police apologise for using AI in ‘dodgy dossier’ ahead of Maccabi fan ban

— Nick Timothy MP (@NJ_Timothy) January 14, 2026

In a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s chair Dame Karen Bradley, he wrote: “I became aware that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match arose as result of a use of Microsoft Co Pilot. Both ACC [Assistant Chief Constable Mike] O'Hara and I had, up until Friday afternoon, understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google.”

He then offered a “profound apology” on their behalf.

Guildford continued: “I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending HAC [Home Affairs Committee]. My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the Committee.”

Reacting to the letter, Nick Timothy, one of the MPs leading the campaign for transparency from WMP, said: “Another day, another confession from West Midlands Police. Despite denials at two separate hearings, it turns out they did use AI to produce their dodgy ‘intelligence’ dossier. Their account of their conduct in getting Israeli fans banned from Villa Park continues to unravel.”

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat said Guildford’s actions amounted to “flagrant misleading of Parliament and failure of leadership” and that his position was simply not tenable.

He went on to state that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood “must explain what she knew, when and why she has not required him to go”.

Mahmood is set to address MPs on Wednesday afternoon and has received a report by His Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary, fire and rescue services on WMP.

A Home Office spokesperson told the JC: “The Home Secretary has this morning received the Chief Inspectorate’s findings into the recommendation by West Midlands police to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match against Aston Villa.

“She will carefully consider the letter and will make a statement in the House of Commons in response later today.”

There have been calls from some Labour MPs for Guildford to resign.

Labour MP Sean Woodcock said that he “should do the decent thing and resign as his position has become untenable”.

Both Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Jewish communal organisations have called on Guildford to resign earlier this month after he faced questions by MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee.

There, he told MPs that the reason he had only told them at that hearing that WMP had been aware of a potential threat to Israeli fans posed by locals arming themselves was because “this is the first time specifically that you’ve asked for that detail”, to the incredulity of members of the committee.

In October last year, WMP backed the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the match in November.

At the time, political leaders including the prime minister condemned the decision, but it was not reversed.

WMP sought to justify the decision on public safety grounds and cited events involving Maccabi fans in Amsterdam in November 2024 as a key justification.

However, they have been accused of painting an inaccurate portrait of events in Amsterdam and exaggerating the threats posed by Israeli supporters. Their stated version of events has since been rejected by Dutch police and the mayor of Amsterdam.

In November, the JC first revealed the official Dutch “Statement of Facts” (Feitenrelaas), which showed of the 59 arrests that were made, just 10 were Israeli and that it was the Israeli fans who had been the target of “groups that are looking for a confrontation with Maccabi supporters”.