Simulated attack shows that MPs are ‘sitting ducks’

EASY TARGET Parliament POLICE officers posing as extremists stormed the Palace of Westminster and reached the Commons chamber in under five minutes, exposing critical security weaknesses, it has been reported.

During the operation earlier this year, officers used a boat to access the building from the Thames. They then navigated the rabbit-warren of corridors to get to the Commons chamber. It could have led to a “massacre” of MPs if it had happened in real life.

Houses of Parliament authorities would not confirm the simulated attack had taken place.

But a Sunday newspaper claimed three separate sources had given accounts of what had happened, with one saying that it showed MPs were “sitting ducks”. Some 15,000 Parliamentary ID cards are to be reissued after an incident in February 2016 when an intruder got into the Palace of Westminster with a fake ID card.

The man “flashed” the card to an officer on Parliament’s Carriage Gate, then ducked under a traffic barrier to avoid the PIN entry system. He stayed in the building for 12 hours and was found “roaring drunk” in one of the bars the next morning.

A review of security at the House of Commons has highlighted the need for a barrier in the river to stop boats approaching from the Thames.

A spokesman for the Houses of Parliament said: “The security of members, staff and the visiting public is our highest priority.”