Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has stuck the knife into bungling chief constable Craig Guildford – but doesn’t have the power to sack him.
Ms Mahmood is powerless to sack police chiefs (Image: Getty)
It was rather rich of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to declare she has no faith in West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford.
The bungling officer should be sacked for the way his force victim-blamed Jews, lied, and then attempted a cover up after the force announced in October supporters of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv would not be able to attend the club’s match against Aston Villa in Birmingham the following month because of safety concerns.
But he can’t. Not by her.
Impotent Ms Mahmood does not have the power to hire or fire – only police and crime commissioners do. And they are being scrapped by this government.
But more to the point, let’s examine how we got to this stage.
For years Labour – first under Jeremy Corbyn and now under Sir Keir Starmer – has emboldened antisemites.
On September 21, in a move intended to “revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution”, the Government announced it was formally recognising the State of Palestine.
All it has done is fan the flames of hatred and further alienate Jews.
Guildford told MPs the Jewish community had been consulted and approved the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. They had not.
He also said the force had not used AI. They had.
Pen-pushers classed the game as high-risk and Israeli fans were banned from attending the Europa League match in a city where one third of its population is Muslim.
The police overstated the threat posed by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans while simultaneously understating the risks posed to them.
Guildford has refused to quit his role despite a vote of no confidence (Image: PA)
The reality is it was a perfect example of two-tier policing – shameful cowardice in the face of Islamist intimidation enabled by Labour.
And the latest figures are damning.
Crown Prosecution Service data reveals the highest ever number of hate crime cases.
Between July and September it received 4,358 cases from police which have been flagged as having a hate crime element – a 15% jump on the previous quarter and 2.8% increase on the same period in 2024.
The suggestion in the case of West Midlands Police was that the matchday ban slapped on Israeli fans was politically motivated rather than based on safety concerns.
On Guildford’s watch the force was placed in special measures for not carrying out its investigations effectively.
Yet he refuses to go and the spineless bureaucrat who has the power to sack him doesn’t have the guts.
Simon Foster, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, was previously chairman of the South Birmingham Momentum Group and a staunch supporter of socialist dinosaur Corbyn. Of course.
Last year Guildford temporarily retired using the “retire and rehire” scheme, a process that fat cats use to protect pensions after 30 years of public service, before being reappointed to his role.
The whole thing stinks of a stitch up, but for Labour to feign outrage is appalling.
And while Ms Mahmood says she has no faith in the police chief she pays £231,198 a year, Britain has no faith in Labour which continues to lurch from crisis to catastrophe.
What has it come to when they can’t even sack an incompetent copper.
