BRITAIN: A dramatically increased security alert spread across Britain last night as ministers confirmed they had considered closing down London's Heathrow Airport after intelligence about a specific threat, writes Frank Millar in London
While 500 troops and an extra 1000 police patrolled Heathrow and its flight paths for a second day, Sir John Stevens, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, confirmed "a pan-London operation" was under way to protect other potential targets across the capital in "the largest operation of its kind" undertaken by the police.
Although the authorities refused to disclose details of the renewed threat to London, the belief that the security services fear an attack on a civilian aircraft using air-to-surface missiles grew as security was also stepped up at Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford airports. A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed that "a number of prudent measures are in place to deal with the threat to security" while refusing to say whether military jets were patrolling London skies.
Meanwhile, the potential spread of the terrorist threat was underlined with the announcement that Scotland's First Minister, Mr Jack McConnell, will chair a security summit with Scottish police chiefs in Edinburgh this morning.
These developments came on a day when the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, again faced down doubtful Labour MPs and made the "moral" case for war with Iraq, while Chancellor Gordon Brown announced an extra £750 million to help meet the costs of possible military action in addition to the £1 billion allocated last autumn.
Mr Blair said the only alternative to disarmament was the continuation of sanctions year on year that could result in the deaths of thousands of Iraqi citizens. He again warned of the combined threat posed by rogue states, weapons of mass destruction and international terrorists.
However, Mr Blair's uphill battle for British public support was confirmed by a new poll by the BBC showing 45 per cent of people saying the UK should play no part in a war with Iraq - whatever the UN might decide. While Mr Blair has made it plain there are circumstances in which he will go to war without UN sanction, the poll showed just 17 per cent of Labour supporters think he would be right to do so. Conservative voters were even less inclined to back Mr Blair, with more than half polled by ICM saying he would do anything asked of him by President Bush.
The levels of scepticism were also on show yesterday as Downing Street was forced to defend Labour Party chairman Dr John Reid, who suggested the terrorist threat to London was "of the nature" of the September 11th attacks on the US.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said Dr Reid "was dealing with the very offensive suggestion that this [the latest security alert\] is in some way got up by the government and the security services". Dr Reid had reacted angrily to suggestions that the troop deployments at Heathrow might have been political "spin" at a time when the government was struggling to win public support for action against Iraq. He later said his comments had been "misinterpreted".
Home Office sources stressed that the decision taken was that the intelligence received on Monday did not justify the closure of Heathrow but was of a nature requiring ministers to consider the option.