Labour security plans ‘left in hotel’
Details of the security arrangements for Labour’s annual party conference in Manchester this autumn were left in a hotel in the city, it has been revealed.
The documents, which reportedly outline various ‘attack scenarios’ involving Tony Blair, including a car bomb and suicide bombing, have now been passed to police.
They were obtained by the North West Enquirer after being found in the Midland Hotel, and apparently included details on which would be the safest rooms to put guests.
The Labour party refused to comment on security, but Greater Manchester police (GMP) has confirmed the find – although a spokesman insisted the information was not secret.
He said the force took all information and intelligence about security “extremely seriously”, but said there was no information to suggest the Labour party conference in September was a specific target for terrorists.
The scenarios included in the folder had been drawn up as a matter of procedure, he said, saying it was “only right that we have contingency plans in place to deal with all manner of eventualities”.
However, he insisted: “The information it contains was not secret and GMP is happy to share it with partner agencies. It does not compromise the security operation surrounding the conference.
“Policing the Labour party conference is a major security operation and it is recognised good practice to share information and involve partner agencies in the planning of an event of this scale.”
The Labour party are holding their annual autumn conference in Manchester for the first time this year, eschewing their usual home of Blackpool. The Conservatives also picked the city for their spring conference, a sign of their new interest in Britain’s urban areas.
In 1984, five people were killed and another 34 injured, many of them members of the cabinet, when the IRA set off a bomb in a hotel in Brighton during the Conservative party conference.
