PEOPLE who doubt that Britain is facing a real international terrorist threat from al-Qaeda and similar groups are deluding themselves, the head of MI5 said yesterday.

Addressing the CBI’s annual conference in Birmingham, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5, gave warning of the dangers of complacency, and appealed to industry and business leaders to take a tough counter-terrorist approach when devising their security strategy.

Ms Manningham-Buller said: “There is a serious and sustained threat of terrorist attacks against UK interests at home and abroad. The terrorists are inventive, adaptable and patient; their planning includes a wide range of methods to attack us.”

She suspected that there might be poeple in the CBI “who doubt this description of the threat or perhaps question the language used to describe its scale”. Making a rare appearance in public, Ms Manningham-Buller, who has headed MI5 since October 2002, said that it was right to ask questions and challenge assumptions, and to check “our judgment of a threat that is shifting and evolving”.

“But I would urge you to consider the events of 9-11 (when nearly 3,000 people were killed), in Bali (where 202 died), in Istanbul (31 dead), and in Madrid (191 killed),” she said. She added: “Be under no illusion. The threat is real and here and affects us all.”

Ms Manningham-Buller has given previous warnings about the terrorist threat to Britain since the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has also described the threat in graphic terms.

Ms Manningham-Buller made it clear, however, that she was worried that the lack of any big terrorist attack in this country may have created a false sense of security. She told the CBI: “I am often asked why there have been no attacks in the UK since 9-11, an entirely reasonable question. Part of the answer is the effectiveness of the UK’s counterterrorist response and the great increase in international cooperation and exchange of intelligence.”

She added: “Following operations involving my service, the police and many other partners, plots have been disrupted and terrorist suspects arrested in the UK. A significant number of those arrested have been charged with serious terrorist offences.”

Urging the CBI to continue playing its part in making life difficult for the terrorist, she said: “Other reasons (for the lack of terrorist attacks in the UK) include the steps taken by the Government to make it harder for terrorists to operate in the UK and the part played by everyone, business included, in reducing our vulnerability to terrorist attacks by protecting ourselves better.”

Planning to foil terrorist acts against their companies should become as much a part of the business agenda as health and safety issues, she said. She said that there might be “major attacks like Madrid” in this country, and they could be aimed at the business community. “Many senior al-Qaeda figures have been killed or arrested since 9-11, but, although the organisation has been damaged, it retains the capability to mount terrorist attacks on Western interests.”

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