Extra police will be deployed to protect spectators and runners at the London marathon in the wake of the Boston bombing, Theresa May said today.
The Home Secretary told MPs that increased police numbers were among a number of “adjustments” to the security plans and that police would continue to review arrangements as ahead of Sunday’s event.
But she said that there was still no information from the US about the identity of the person behind Monday’s attack on the Boston marathon and any possible extra threat to the UK as a result.
Mrs May’s comments came during an appearance before the Commons Home Affairs Committee in which she was also attacked by Tory MP Mark Reckless over her failure to secure the deportation of Abu Qatada.
Mrs May said she found it “deeply frustrating” that the extremist cleric was still here and blamed the European Court of Human Rights for moving the goalposts” over his case and blocking his deportation on the grounds that evidence obtained by torture might be used against him.
Mr Reckless responded, however, by accusing Mrs May of a “craven surrender” to the European judges during a heated exchange in which he urged her to turn to Britain’s Supreme Court instead as an alternative way of ejecting Qatada from the country.
Earlier, on the marathon, Mrs May said that she had been briefed by both MI5 and Scotland Yard in the wake of the Boston marathon attack and that the security plan for London’s event had been beefed up as a result.
“They have made some adjustments to policing arrangements for the London marathon and they have put some increased policing in for the marathon,” she told MPs.
