Met chief warns new UK terror atrocity ‘is a case of when not if’
600 extra armed police ‘not enough to stop attack’
BRITAIN’S top policeman today warns that a terrorist attack in the UK is a matter of ‘when, not if’.
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe says he understands the growing fear over the recent spate of atrocities on ‘our doorstep’.
But he says despite a huge boost in the number of armed police and Britain’s ‘worldbeating’ security forces, he cannot entirely reassure people this country will not be hit.
Sir Bernard warns that as long as the threat level remained ‘Severe’ then ‘an attack is highly likely – you could say it is a case of when, not if’.
But in a hard-hitting article for The Mail on Sunday, he says Britain is well placed to counter the threat and points out there had not been a terrorist murder since the beheading of soldier Lee Rigby three years ago.
Sir Bernard, who was appointed Metropolitan Police Commissioner five years ago, says numerous terrorist plots have been foiled in the UK as a result of the co-ordinated efforts of the police and intelligence services.
He says gun controls and the fact Britain is an island mean terrorists ‘would struggle to get the firearms required to repeat attacks similar to those we have seen on the Continent. This gives a solid base as it means the UK environment is immediately hostile to the terrorist’.
Sir Bernard praises the efforts of the Muslim population to integrate into British society, saying the ‘vigilance of our officers is backed up by millions more eyes and ears. These are whole communities united in defeating terrorism’.
He also points to the increased numbers of specially trained and equipped officers to ‘confront these kinds of heavily armed terrorists’.
Sir Bernard says that since the Paris attacks in November, in which 130 people died, he has boosted firearms officers by 600 to 2,800 – despite Government cuts to police budgets.
He writes: ‘This increases our firearms capacity significantly at a time of crisis… for the first time our team of Counter Terrorism Specialist Firearms Officers, who train for the very worst attacks, are ready 24 hours a day.’
He adds: ‘Defeating terrorism is as much about refusing to be afraid as anything else. Refusing to change our beliefs, our values and our way of life. We will not become like them. We will not hate. We will not be cowed. And because of this they will never win.’
The announcement of the extra armed officers for the Met follows a period during which numbers fell as a result of financial cuts. Official figures show that in 2009/10 there were about 2,800 armed officers in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics, but by last year this had declined to an estimated 2,200.