Even as he resigned, Craig Guildford couldn’t do the decent thing. Perhaps that’s no surprise. We have learned in recent weeks that the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police has been habitually obfuscating over the circumstances under which Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned from Birmingham, and even misled parliament when he failed to disclose that the force’s intelligence report included an entirely invented football match. This week Guildford was entirely discredited in a report by Sir Andy Cooke, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, and has lost the confidence of the Home Secretary.

Despite all this, Guildford was unapologetic, claiming that his resignation was due to ‘the political and media frenzy around myself and my position’. This line was echoed by Simon Foster, Police and Crime Commissioner for the region, who said that Guildford had ‘acted with honour’.

The truth is that there is nothing honourable about Guildford’s conduct, and it is appalling that he........

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