West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford has written to the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee to apologise for using AI to ban Jewish fans from attending a football game. The thin blue line in action…
Guildford says after denying it was the case he “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 O’Hara and I had, up until Friday afternoon, understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google.” Blimey…
It remains to be seen whether Shabana Mahmood will allow him to keep his job. He is fighting for it…
UPDATE: The Times reports that Guildford is “digging in” and “lawyering up”, and will refuse to quit even if Shabana Mahmood declares she has no confidence in him later today. Not going down without a battle…
Read his full letter to Karen Bradley below:
“Dear Dame Karen Bradley,
I write further to my appearance at the HAC on the 1st December 2025 and 6th January 2026 and in relation to the questions raised by the Committee concerning the provenance of the inclusion of the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match in the WMP report to the Birmingham City Council Safety Advisory Group.
In preparation for the force response to the HMICFRS inquiry into this matter, on Friday afternoon 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 O’Hara and I had, up until Friday afternoon, understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google.
This will be further explained in the additional material being provided to the Committee.
I would like to offer my profound apology to the Committee for this error, both on behalf of myself and that of ACC O’Hara. I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending HAC. My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the Committee.”
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”