Can we still trust the US with our secrets?

IT is a profoundly saddening betrayal of trust. With Britain on high alert and a major manhunt under way, sensitive information about Monday’s bomb attack has been leaked by the United States.

In perhaps the most egregious example, the New York Times printed pictures of the blood-smeared detonator and other bomb components – which risk revealing what the police know about how it was made.

One of the great strengths of the Special Relationship has been the sharing of intelligence material between Britain and America’s security services.

So quite why rogue agents in the CIA or FBI have been leaking – despite warnings from Greater Manchester Police and the Home Secretary – is a mystery.

It reveals much about the parlous state of America’s great institutions. For months now, the US has been shaken by revelations about the war between the CIA, the FBI and the White House. There seems to be a catastrophic breakdown of trust between the executive and the security agencies.

This cannot be healthy for the world’s greatest superpower, or for Britain. When the time comes to learn the lessons of the Manchester massacre, ministers will have to think very carefully about how much we can trust our closest ally with our secrets.

Meanwhile, the past week has also revealed the urgent need to upgrade and extend our counter-terrorism powers and make sure those already on the statute book are being used. It is an affront to common sense that not one of the hundreds of jihadis who went from this country to join Islamic state has been banned from returning.

The Prevent programme – designed to uncover radical Islamists before they turn to violence – must be extended, even if it offends bien pensant liberals who would have potential terrorists go unchallenged.

Consideration must also be given to restoring control orders, which restrain the movements of terror suspects, stop them using the internet and restrict who they can see. But nowhere is action needed more than in tackling the terrorist poison flooding social media sites.

So Mrs May’s plans – announced today at the G7 – to force Google, Facebook and Twitter to automatically take down the noxious material and to compel them to pass on leads which could prevent an attack, cannot come too soon. Shaming these amoral, tax-avoiding multi-billion-dollar web giants has failed, so they must instead face an unflinching international effort – and ultimately the full force of the law.