Westminster is rattled. The killing of a major gang leader via a flower bouquet bomb at a European airport has laid bare the gaps in aviation security. Whitehall sources confirm the Home Office has ordered an emergency review of UK airport protocols.
The device, concealed in a luxury bouquet, passed through security screening undetected. It detonated in the VIP lounge, killing the target and three bystanders. Security experts are aghast. How did a bouquet bypass X-ray? Questions are being asked. The answer is uncomfortable: focus has been on liquids, electronics, and shoes. Flowers? Not on the list.
This is a game-changer. The perpetrators knew the system. They exploited a blind spot. Intelligence suggests the plot was months in the making. There is chatter of copycats. The National Crime Agency is on high alert.
Downing Street is nervous. The PM faces calls to act. Labour is sharpening its attack lines. ‘The government has been asleep at the wheel,’ a shadow minister told me. Tory backbenchers are also restless. They smell a weakness.
What will change? Expect tighter screening of all parcels and gifts. Possibly sniffer dogs for organic material. But this is a race. The criminals are adapting. Can security keep up?
The European Union is also moving. Joint security taskforce meetings have been called. The UK, post-Brexit, must coordinate bilaterally. That adds complexity.
This story has legs. The review is due within weeks. Until then, the fear is that airport security is still one step behind.
Eleanor Rigby, Political Bureau Chief.
