Chief constable 'digging in' after 'devastating' verdict

HOME SECRETARY TELLS COMMONS SHE REGRETS NOT HAVING POWER TO SACK HIM

- JANE HAYNES News Reporter

WEST Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster was last night refusing to bow to pressure to sack the force's chief constable over the controversial decision to ban Israeli fans from a Villa Park match.

In a statement yesterday, the PCC rejected multiple calls for him to act immediately to oust Craig Guildford following publication of a "damning" report into his handling of the affair.

Mr Foster said he would not act until he had found time to review the report and quizzed the chief constable at a local committee meeting later this month.

Yesterday, Mr Guildford apologised to MPs for giving them an error in evidence, after he appeared twice before the Home Affairs Committee over the controversy.

He wrote to chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley that it was not his intention to mislead Parliament when he told the committee the wrong intelligence over the nonexistent West Ham match was from a Google search. Instead, it arose from the use of an AI tool, despite previously telling MPs AI was never used.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, MP for Small Heath, Birmingham, told the House of Commons that she has "no confidence" in Mr Guildford following the "devastating" findings by the independent police inspectorate, led by Sir Andy Cook. But she does not have the power to sack him - that lies with the PCC, she said.