PLAN TO SHUT ROADS ‘WOULD BE GIVING IN TO TERRORISTS’

PLANS to ban cars driving past Parliament to prevent attacks are akin to giving in to terrorists, critics argued last night.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said yesterday the area in Westminster could be pedestrianised to ward off vehicle attacks, which she called terrorists’ ‘weapon of choice’. She added: ‘We are not going to give in...but it is important we take reasonable measures.’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan also backed the plans for part-pedestrianisation. But critics said such decisions shouldn’t be based on the actions of ‘nutters’ and warned against allowing terrorists to win. Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said: ‘Keep the roads open. Never give in to terrorists.’ And commentator Simon Jenkins told BBC Radio 4 it was ‘wrong’ to redesign London ‘because some nutter’s driven a car into some cyclist’.

Mr Khan and the Home Office were already discussing the measure before Tuesday’s attack. Security minister Ben Wallace said the Government had committed to help fund the £5million feasibility study.

A senior Whitehall source said it would consider any ‘proportionate and effective’ proposals backed by police and parliamentary advisers.

TRUE, we cannot know if a highly trained terrorist would have penetrated Parliament’s defences more effectively than the incompetent suspect on Tuesday. But what is clear is that security barriers and prompt police response were more than a match for suspect Salih Khater.

Indeed, it would be a mistake to convert failure into victory for terrorism by closing the roads around the Commons to traffic.

MPs are isolated enough from the real world, without surrounding their bubble with steel.