UK police apologise to parliament after admitting a major and controversial policy decision was based on AI making stuff up

The Chief Constable of West Midlands Police in the United Kingdom has apologised to members of parliament after admitting that a major policing decision had been made "as result of a use of Microsoft Co Pilot [sic]".

The decision was taken in November 2025 to ban fans from the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a Europa League match against the Birmingham-based team Aston Villa. It was hugely controversial at the time, with even Prime Minister Keir Starmer questioning the move and calling it "wrong", and MPs have continued digging into why it was made.

The Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, had previously insisted the police "do not use AI" but that a Google search had provided erroneous information used in a report that led to the ban: Notably, the inclusion of a match between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and West Ham that never happened. Now Guildford has written to Karen Bradley, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, admitting that AI was used in assembling the report:

"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," writes Guildford.

"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 [...] 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."

Guildford had previously been grilled by MPs about the inclusion of the non-existent match on December 1, 2025, at which time he said: "Within my narrative, which I have compiled over the weekend, the one assertion in relation to West Ham is completely wrong.

"I am told that is a result of some social media scraping that was done, and that is wrong. That was one element in a document that was eight or nine pages long, but we stand by the key tenets in the document."

Paul Kohler MP asked Guildford at that December hearing if the force just "did an AI search" and "whacked it into the [report]", to which Guildford responded: "No, not at all. We do a very comprehensive assessment."

On 6 January Guildford repeated the police denials. "The summation in the House—it was a question that was asked in the House—was that West Midlands Police may have used AI on this particular occasion," said Guildford. "We do not use AI."

Not done with digging a hole on that occasion, Guildford went on to waffle about "a system, which football officers use all over the country, that has intelligence reports of previous games", adding that "I am told that they just did a Google search on that [previous fixtures] because they could not find it in the normal system."

To briefly pause and re-focus on the topic at hand, the controversy surrounds a decision taken by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group, which is led by West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council, to deem the November 6 match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa "high risk." As a result of this Tel Aviv fans were banned, a decision that was decried as antisemitic by some senior politicians.

Police at the time pointed to previous incidents at Maccabi Tel Aviv games, including fan violence during a 2024 Europa League match in Amsterdam with Ajax, to justify the decision. The Dutch authorities have questioned the UK police's interpretation of the causes of violence at the match.

But conflicting opinions over the Ajax game is one thing. It's a match that never actually happened being used to inform this decision that is truly shocking, and raises massive questions over the competence and command structure of the UK police. Copilot can't get basic facts right: how on Earth could it be used to inform a decision of this magnitude, and one that was always sure to attract scrutiny?

"Another day, another confession from West Midlands Police," said Conservative MP Nick Timothy MP on X. "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."

His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC), Sir Andy Cooke, is due to write to the home secretary about the matter later today. That same home secretary is one of those who questioned the initial decision. And rumbling beneath it all is the toxic suggestion of antisemitism being involved in the decision.

The government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann, says: “What on earth were they doing using AI to create an untruth to back their case.” He called on Chief Constable Guildford to resign and for West Midlands Police to be put under special measures by the police inspectorate.

The intelligence report referring to the non-existent match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham has not been published, though it has been quoted in parliament.

"Early on in the intelligence report, it says: 'The most recent match Maccabi played in the UK was against West Ham in the Europa Conference League on 9 November 2023. This was part of the '23-24 European campaign. It marked Maccabi Tel Aviv’s last competitive appearance on UK soil to date,'" said Lord Mann.

"That is in the intelligence report, but that did not happen. West Ham have never played Maccabi Tel Aviv. On that day, West Ham played Olympiakos of Greece and beat them 1-0. I think Tel Aviv were playing a Ukrainian team somewhere."

The UK government has invested billions in all sorts of AI measures, and is one of those that believes it's going to somehow revolutionise the country and change the way it does everything. It's easy to look at the last year of AI humiliation, or software companies complaining that nobody likes it, and hand-wave the AI boosters away. But an incident like this, where a major political decision was made and parliament was misled as a result, surely has to be some sort of canary in the coal mine.