Reid delivers Christmas terrorism warning
Home secretary John Reid has warned that a terrorist attack occurring this Christmas is a “highly likely” event.
Speaking in an interview with the GMTV Sunday programme on ITV1 this morning, Mr Reid sought to emphasise the degree of risk Britain faces in the battle against terrorism.
He said that approximately 30 conspiracies preparing for major terrorist events were known by MI5 and warned that “carnage” similar to that caused by the July 7th bombings last year could occur if any of these were successful.
“I try to walk the tightrope between being truthful and honest about the threat to the public but, on the other hand, to say we are doing everything possible to combat it and to try to keep our lifestyle as near as possible to the British way of life,” Mr Reid said.
He insisted that an attack was not “inevitable”, however and praised the security services for their ongoing efforts to foil terrorist plots.
“We ought to be very grateful to the people in the security services who work night and day to try to protect us,” Mr Reid added.
“We can never guarantee that we will get 100 per cent success but we do get 100 per cent effort from the security services.”
The current threat level maintained on the Home Office’s website, decided by MI5 and the joint terrorism analysis centre, mirrored his comments today.
The threat currently stands at the second highest level “severe” which the website states means that “an attack is highly likely”.
