Tory MP calls for armed police at all ‘sensitive sites’
‘There will be things that need to be looked at, but I think we don’t want to be working in a fortress’
POLICE should consider arming all officers guarding “sensitive sites” after Wednesday’s attack, a Tory MP and former Cabinet minister has said.
Sensitive sites which are guarded by armed police at present include Buckingham Palace and other royal households, airports and sea ports, along with nuclear power stations.
Theresa Villiers, the former Northern Ireland secretary, said the issue of police who patrol areas “known to be of interest to terrorists” carrying a weapon should now be examined.
Theresa May said that the carrying of arms remained an “operational matter” for the police.
Ms Villiers said: “As we reflect on what happened, is it time to consider whether the police who guard sensitive sites known to be of interest to terrorists, like Parliament or airports, should routinely carry personal protection weapons, even when those officers are not part of the units formally tasked with armed response?”
Mrs May, responding after delivering a statement to MPs on the attacks, said the level of security had “been enhanced significantly” over her 20 years in Parliament.
“As to whether individual officers undertaking particular duties are routinely armed, that is an operational matter for the police themselves,” she said. “They are best able to judge the circumstances in which it is best for individuals to have those arms but of course we have seen a significant increase in the number of armed response vehicles, the number of counter-terrorism specialists [and] firearms officers.
“It is a sad reflection of the threat that we face that it has been necessary to do that but we have been doing that.”
Nicky Morgan, a Tory MP and former education secretary, said she thought Parliament was secure.
She said: “I think there is a very significant presence of armed officers and police there, and security personnel, and although tragically an officer lost his life, actually the attacker only got 20 metres inside the perimeter. But of course there will be things that need to be looked at but I think we don’t want to be working in a fortress.
“MPs know that we are high-profile targets individually but this is about an attack on the Palace of Westminster, and MPs obviously will keep their own security under review.”