Fresh thinking is needed in Britain's fight against terror, including the appointment of a Cabinet member to supervise security and a security force to patrol Britain's borders, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party said Wednesday.
Addressing the International Institute of Strategic Studies, David Cameron said while he respected Prime Minister Tony Blair's analysis of the terror threat — which controversially took Britain into the U.S.-led war in Iraq — he had "serious reservations" about the way Britain is fighting terrorism at home.
Most of Blair's 12-point plan for combating terror, announced shortly after four suicide bombers attacked London's transit system on July 7, 2005, had not been implemented, Cameron said. The measures included barring radical Islamic clerics from entering Britain, closing down mosques linked to extremism and banning certain Islamic groups, which Tories accuse Blair of failing to act on.
Cameron added that authorities had also failed to act on a recommendation of the official report on the July 7 attack that police should have radio communications between subway tunnels and the street.
The Tory leader repeated his call for the appointment of a Cabinet-level minister dedicated to improving security.
"Counter-terrorism policy is currently the responsibility of the Home Secretary, responsible for over 73,000 staff, working in nine directorates dealing with everything from immigration, to prisons, to the courts, to crime, to anti-social behavior, as well as security," he said.
"Surely the nature of the threat we face demands more focus than this?"
Cameron also wants a security force dedicated to patrolling Britain's borders. "Because we are not doing enough to guarantee the security of our borders, to police the seas around them and to ensure that we know who is coming and going across them, an entire industry — people-smuggling — has grown up to take advantage," he said.
The government offered no immediate comment.
