Home secretary: UK faces serious and sustained threat

Friday, 29 June 2007 12:00 AM

The new home secretary Jacqui Smith today faces her first challenge at the Home Office.

Less than 24 hours after her surprise promotion to one of the top jobs in Gordon Brown's government, Ms Smith chaired a meeting of the government's emergency response committee.

The government has been responding to the discovery of a suspected 'bomb' in central London.

Ms Smith chaired her first Cobra meeting ahead of a Cabinet briefing and private meeting with the prime minister.

It followed the discovering of a "potentially viable" explosive device in the Haymarket in the early hours of the morning.

It would have caused "considerable loss of life," if explosives officers had not successfully defused it, the home secretary revealed.

Ms Smith refused to speculate on further details, insisting the Met's counter terrorism command should be allowed to conduct its investigation.

She said: "The government, the police and the security services make clear, and as the prime minister reiterated this morning at Cabinet, we are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism.

"While we can minimise the risk we can never completely eliminate it. But as the prime minister has made clear, the government, the police and the security services are doing everything possible to protect the public."

The device was not found because of intelligence but reported by a member of an ambulance crew called to a nearby nightclub.

Police have now confirmed the explosive device contained gas canisters, a significant amount of petrol and nails. They have taken the car away for forensic examination.

The prime minister earlier called for public vigilance and said the police should be allowed to investigate the incident.

Mr Brown said: "The first duty of the government is the security of the people and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continuous threat to our country.

"I will stress to the cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days."

A planned Cabinet discussion on constitutional reform has now been sidelined as the government responds to the latest terror threat.

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