Terror attack highly likely, says Met chief

A TERRORIST attack in Britain is a matter of ‘when, not if’, the country’s most senior police officer warned yesterday.

The stark assessment came as it emerged that the police and security services are now investigating at least four active terror plots.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he understood fears over the recent spate of atrocities on ‘our doorstep’.

Despite a huge rise in the number of armed police and the country’s ‘world-beating’ security forces, he admitted he could not guarantee the country would not be hit.

He told the Mail on Sunday that as long as the official threat level remained ‘severe’ then ‘an attack is highly likely – you could say it is a case of when, not if’.

Meanwhile, a senior intelligence official told The Sunday Times: ‘There’s four or five cases where there is a sense of a plot, where they are planning and plotting and intending to commit an act of terrorism’.

Last week security minister Ben Wallace spoke to retail chiefs and sports venue operators to review security at stadiums and shopping centres. He said: ‘In light of events in Germany and France, the Government is keen to ensure that shopping centres and sports stadiums where there are large crowds are getting the support they require.’

Sir Bernard’s warning came as it was revealed that the only remaining extremist plotter under an anti-terror order used legal aid to get his ‘pocket money’ increased to £75 a week.

The 28-year-old Islamist fanatic of Algerian descent won the rise as he tried to water down controls designed to stop him committing an atrocity.

There was an outcry last week after ministers revealed only one T-Pim order – Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures – now exists.

T-Pims are meant to protect the public from British-based fanatics who cannot yet be prosecuted by restricting their movements and activities.

The plotter, who was jailed for three years over a plan to attack London, went to the High Court and won a 50 per cent rise in his weekly cash from £50 to £75. His curfew was also relaxed, so he can stay outside an extra two hours a day.

He had been moved away from London and tried to use human rights laws to engineer his return. The court rejected his argument – and also his bid to lift a ban on him going to a National Express coach station and a TA base near where he now lives.