The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Fury over plan to put 1,500 extra US spies on Dunn base

- By Harry Cole

US SPY chiefs are planning a £200 million expansion of RAF Croughton to station an extra 1,500 intelligen­ce officials at the base close to where motorcycli­st Harry Dunn died.

The teenager was killed in a collision with a car driven by former CIA agent Anne Sacoolas outside the Northampto­nshire facility last August after she drove on the wrong side of the road. She later fled the country.

Now local MP Andrea Leadsom and Harry’s family are campaignin­g to stop the US Government overhaulin­g the site amid fears about future crashes.

It is understood RAF Croughton is to become the United States intelligen­ce services’ listening station for the entire African continent, with vast buildings required for the base.

However, residents fear the increase in personnel threatens their lives as more and more American drivers risk accidents in the surroundin­g area.

There are currently about 250 US military officers on the site, with 140 American defence contractor­s and a similar number of British Ministry of Defence officials stationed there.

But the plans to quadruple this presence will be challenged in the House of Commons on Thursday, in an emergency debate triggered by Ms Leadsom. A Minister will be summoned to the House to explain the UK’s support for the move as the former Cabinet Minister leads calls to stop it.

Last night she told The Mail on Sunday: ‘From the first day that Harry’s family asked me for help I’ve been determined to support them in achieving justice and ensure that this terrible tragedy is not repeated.’

Her support has been welcomed by Harry’s family, who have had an often fraught relationsh­ip with the Government in the ten months since the crash.

They are currently taking legal action against Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whom they blame for allowing Ms Sacoolas to flee the country two weeks after the crash amid evidence that her claim of diplomatic immunity was deeply flawed.

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