Laine Pepper
The police and crime commissioner at the centre of the Maccabi fan row faced calls to resign yesterday.
Simon Foster, the Labour police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the West Midlands, was condemned as ‘weak’ for not firing Chief Constable Craig Guildford in the days after the Home Secretary and MPs called for him to step down.
The PCC, who was the only person who had the power to sack the chief, provoked further fury by praising his ‘honour’ in retiring yesterday.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘Under Craig Guildford’s leadership, West Midlands Police lied and obfuscated, victim-blaming Jews instead of taking on the Islamists.
‘His retirement, after the pitiful failure of West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster to sack him, should result in the resignation of Mr Foster as well.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘A chief constable cannot bow to the demands of an Islamist mob and then mislead Parliament and stay in their job.
‘I am glad he is now “retiring” but it’s extraordinary that the Labour PCC and the Home Secretary didn’t just sack him.’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Mr Foster was ‘too weak to act’ and called Mr Guildford’s move to retire ‘simply not good enough’.
It has emerged that on the week that the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned from the match at Aston Villa, one of Mr Foster’s advisors had to apologise for suggesting Sir Keir Starmer was biased in favour of Israel ‘because his wife is Jewish’.
Bushra Bi, a Labour councillor and a former lady mayoress of Birmingham, prompted outrage amongst Jewish groups with the comments made in November 2023 in an email exchange with other Birmingham Labour councillors.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
