Blair in "no doubt" over more terror attacks
Blair in "no doubt" over more terror attacks
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Tuesday, 04, Jul 2006 08:05
Tony Blair has today revealed he is in "no doubt" that there are groups in Britain planning more attacks like those seen in London last summer.
Under intense grilling during his twice-yearly question and answer session with the Commons liaison committee, the prime minister discussed a range of topics, including the Afghan hijackers case, the state of the Home Office and the situation in the Middle East.
But it was the issue of terrorism in Britain on which he was most heavily pressed, particularly as his session came a day after the head of the country's anti-terror unit admitted that there were 70 ongoing investigations into potential terror attacks.
And Mr Blair, talking three days before the anniversary of the July 7th bombings that killed 52 people on London's transport network, reiterated the view of the Metropolitan police's deputy assistant commissioner, Peter Clarke, that the UK was still under threat.
"There is no doubt, as the police said yesterday, that there are groups planning this type of [terrorist] activity," he said when asked whether there were other Britons plotting similar attacks.
He added: "If you want to defeat this extremism you have to defeats its ideas, and you have to defeat a completely false sense of grievance with the west.
"This is a global ideology that we are fighting," he said, adding that "it is important we facilitate as much dialogue as we can with the Muslim community".
The government has today come under fire from one of its own MPs, after Tooting's Sadiq Khan said he was worried that it was at risk of becoming like the Duke of York and "marching all these talented British Muslims up the hill of consultation and dialogue only to march them down again as very little appears to have changed".
But Mr Blair rejected this assertion when it was put to him this morning by senior Labour MP John Denham.
"The government itself cannot go and root out the extremism in these communities. I am not the person to [do this]," he said.
"It is better that we mobilise the Islamic community itself to do this."