Rob Rinder fumes at 'corruption in motion' as ITV GMB star furious over police's Maccabi Tel-Aviv fan ban: 'Something's wrong in Britain!'

During yesterday's hearing, the committee heard for the first time that police possessed intelligence from as early as September 5 indicating that local groups intended to target Israeli visitors with violence.

Assistant Chief Constable O'Hara revealed that the force had received substantial information suggesting "vigilante groups" from the Birmingham community posed a threat to the travelling supporters.

"We got a lot of information intelligence to suggest that people were going to actively seek out Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and would seek violence towards them," he told MPs.

Mr O'Hara described a "bubbling position locally" and referenced individuals online claiming to be Maccabi supporters who were "goading local community members and saying, 'this is what you're going to get'."

Documents presented to the committee also indicated concerns that local groups may have armed themselves against Jewish attendees.

Elsewhere, committee chair Dame Karen Bradley accused the force of searching for reasons to justify a decision that had already been taken.

"It feels to us, from everything we've seen, that there was a need that you felt, that you had to justify banning these fans, and that scraping was done to find a reason," she told Mr Guildford.

The chief constable rejected this characterisation, stating: "I'm really sorry if it comes across in that way. That was absolutely not the case."

However, Mr Guildford acknowledged that some intelligence had been gathered through basic internet searches. He admitted that information regarding a supposed previous Maccabi match against West Ham came from "one individual doing one Google search because he couldn't find the reference."

Assistant Chief Constable Mike O'Hara defended the practice, telling MPs that open source research is "not unusual" in police intelligence-gathering.

The police had previously cited concerns about the Maccabi fans' previous behaviour at away matches as a main reason to ban them from the Villa game.

At the time of the decision in October, speaking on GMB, Mr Rinder questioned the course of action, asking what message it sent to every Jewish person in Britain.

And now, following the hearing, he reposted the clip of himself on the ITV show questioning the decision with his frank opinions on the saga.

"If safety means telling Jewish fans they can’t attend a football match, something’s gone badly wrong with what 'safety' means in Britain," Mr Rinder began on X.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lying with authority is not an error; it is corruption in motion. https://t.co/rv83IlchIV

— Rob Rinder (@RobbieRinder) January 7, 2026

Taking aim at West Midlands Police, specifically, he then posted a second tweet: "'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Lying with authority is not an error; it is corruption in motion."

Mr Rinder was far from the only public figure calling for consequences towards West Midlands Police over the decision.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp declared Mr Guildford's position "untenable" following the evidence session.

He demanded that if the chief constable refuses to resign, "the home secretary must use her powers to sack him."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch went further, accusing West Midlands Police of "capitulating to Islamists" before "collaborating with them to cover it up."

Writing on social media, she stated: "They knew extremists were planning to attack Jews for going to a football match, and their response was to blame and remove Jewish people instead."