London - The chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, Mr Bruce George, has insisted his comments about a possible link between terrorism and foot-and-mouth disease were "misconstrued", Rachel Donnelly reports. Reports yesterday suggested Mr George had told a BBC radio phone-in that the disease could have been introduced into Britain by bio-terrorists.
Mr George, a senior Labour backbencher, told BBC Radio 5 Live that if it was possible to open a letter and become contaminated with anthrax then it was possible, although unlikely, that animals were "deliberately" infected with foot-and-mouth. Yesterday he said he was simply responding to a question.
"I was asked 'was it linked to biological terrorism?' and I hadn't the slightest intention of making a link between terrorism and foot-and-mouth," Mr George said.