West Midlands Police (WMP) relied on “false information” generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in support of the claim Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “high risk” to justify their ban from a match in Birmingham last year, a new parliamentary report reveals.
It is the latest hugely embarrassing finding for the under-fire force, who showed “confirmation bias” in gathering evidence on the Israeli club’s supporters, according to MPs on the Home Affair Select Committee (HASC).
WMP stand condemned too for their lack of concern for the impact of the ban on the Jewish community, according to the committee’s chair.
The damning HASC report published on Sunday also raises concern over the role of councillors in the ban, and recommends politicians should no longer be part of any Safety Advisory Group (SAG) deciding on public order matters.
Nor does the report spare the Government criticism, with particular questions for the Home Office over events in the lead-up to the Europa League fixture against Aston Villa at Villa Park in November.
The report is hugely critical of WMP’s decision-making processes prior to their recommending the ban, the fallout from which has already led to the exit of Chief Constable Craig Guildford.
The JC was the first outlet to question WMP’s claims regarding Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at a match in Amsterdam in 2024, when the Israeli supporters were violently attacked in an organised “Jew hunt”. The Midlands force claimed there had been hooligan behaviour by Maccabi fans, but the JC revealed that this account was not supported by Dutch officials.
WMP have already been exposed as having used a fictitious match between Maccabi and West Ham drawn from AI-generated research in an intelligence report to justify the ban.
This was despite an ethics panel having weeks earlier questioned whether the force should use AI at all, as the JC revealed.
Now the HASC report reveals how police further used AI research to provide rationale for the away fan ban, after a request by the local SAG chair on October 9, 2025.
It states: “The then Gold Commander [officer in charge] for the operation wrote a reply on 10 October which included questionable information, some of which we now understand to have been gathered via an AI search, about the Amsterdam disorder, including that 2,000 Dutch police had been deployed, that ‘people were thrown into the river’ and that the disorder was ‘well organised and targeted towards Muslim communities.’”
The MPs agreed with Sir Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, that the force was guilty of “confirmation bias” in their approach.
Their report said: “Despite a wealth of evidence available regarding the Amsterdam disorder, WMP relied on inaccurate information on the behaviour of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in reaching a view of them as unusually high-risk.
“It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why this inaccurate narrative took hold, but it is clear that WMP failed to do even basic due diligence on the information they received. This included false information that was generated by AI.”
The force is currently subject to a probe by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) after receiving “a voluntary conduct referral from West Midlands Police relating to one senior police officer and a staff member over the force’s use of AI.”
The HASC lambasted senior WMP officers over giving incorrect information on the use of AI on two separate appearances before the MPs’ committee.
The report found the use of AI tool Microsoft Copilot “was unauthorised and not initially disclosed” to Guildford and Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara and concluded they “did not intentionally mislead the Committee”.
But in withering criticism, the report said the fact that WMP senior officers were “able to give the Committee incorrect information on two separate occasions is more evidence of the poor due diligence which WMP applied to information in this case.
“It should not have taken two oral evidence sessions and a subsequent written correction to achieve candour and accuracy; this raises serious questions about the culture of transparency and commitment to accuracy in WMP.”
The MPs recommended “promoting a culture of transparency and attention” as a matter of priority.
The report found that the Home Office failed both to recognise the significance of the possibility of the decision to ban Maccabi fans and to properly coordinate across government.
While ministers were not informed of the likelihood of a recommendation to stop the Israeli supporters attending, the public condemnation of the ban by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer “increased tensions” and the Home Office should have escalated matters before the decision was announced.
The MPs also suggested that the practice of local councillors sitting on SAGs come to an end.
Two local councillors on the group both spoke against the fixture taking place. While the committee could not say conclusively that the SAG decision to ban Maccabi fans was “made because of political pressure”, they added: “On the basis of the evidence we have seen we also cannot conclude with any confidence that the decision was not politically influenced.”
They continued: “It is clear that on this occasion councillors, with a stated political aim, had a disproportionate opportunity to influence SAG decision-making on a deeply divisive political issue. While the presence of elected politicians on SAGs has potential benefits in terms of local representation, it also risks decision-making becoming politically motivated, undermining trust in the process.”
The report endorsed Guildford’s exit as chief constable “so that WMP can begin to address the loss of trust and confidence that has resulted from this episode”.
Home Affairs Select Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley was scathing in her view of WMP over the ban. The Conservative MP said: “Information that showed the Maccabi fans to be a high risk was trusted without proper scrutiny. Shockingly, this included unverified information generated by AI. While Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were falsely characterised as unusually violent, the threat posed by local communities was downplayed and too little care was given to the impact on the Jewish community in Birmingham.
“Government intervention was clumsy and came too late, and we reject the government’s argument that it could only intervene once the decision was taken. The profile of this fixture should have been obvious, and it seems that No10, the Home Office and the Department for Culture Media and Sport were indeed aware. But their intervention when it came did little more than inflame tensions.”
Committee member and Labour MP Joani Reid, who also serves as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against antisemitism, described the incidents around the Maccabi fan ban as “among the most serious policing failures in recent years”.
She said: “West Midlands Police imposed an extraordinary and unjustified ban on Jewish football fans, built on claims that simply did not stand up. Inaccurate accounts were repeated. Evidence was not properly tested. Parliament was given wrong information. Basic standards slipped.
“At a time of rising antisemitism and real anxiety within Jewish communities, Birmingham’s Jewish residents were not properly consulted before that decision was made. The impact has been lasting. Many felt singled out and pushed to the margins in their own city.”
The Scottish MP found the conduct of senior West Midlands Police officers who gave evidence before the committee severely wanting.
She said: “When the Committee sought answers, we were met with defensiveness. Even as the facts unravelled, there was no immediate recognition of how serious this was.
“The former Chief Constable has now retired in disgrace. That speaks to the gravity of what happened.” Reid urged the force to repair trust with Birmingham’s Jewish community with “more than words”.
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