FURTHER flaws in security at the Houses of Parliament were revealed last night when a journalist told how he smuggled a fake bomb into the Palace of Westminster.
Anthony France, a reporter for The Sun, secured a temporary job as a waiter through catering recruitment firm Berkeley Scott, despite holding a press pass authorised by Scotland Yard and giving references for restaurants that did not exist. Eight weeks after applying, just days after Fathers 4 Justice campaigners threw a flour bomb at Tony Blair in the Commons, his security clearance was approved and he began work on September 6. Mr France was issued with a photo ID and after a few days was told he no longer had to use the entrance where bags were X-rayed.
“Throughout my employment in the House, I was allowed to wander around Parliament unchallenged. That allowed me to get close to several senior Cabinet ministers, plus hundreds of other MPs, police officers and VIPs,” he said. Yesterday, despite supposedly heightened security following Wednesday’s invasion, he was able to take Plasticine, which looked like the explosive Semtex, along with an alarm clock, batteries and wires, into the Commons.
A video showing Mr France holding the device after constructing it in a toilet, was shown on television news bulletins last night. Just hours before the invasion, the reporter served drinks to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, on Parliament’s riverside terrace. He was pictured next to the politician in photographs taken with a long lens from Westminster Bridge.
Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, last night said the newspaper had exposed the “amateurish and old-fashioned culture” at Parliament. “This is the age of the suicide terrorist and security is antiquated. There are too many fiefdoms and committees. It is time for reform,” he said.
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The Sun’s revelations will be all the more embarrassing given that Mr France is known for similar exposes of security.
Less than one month ago he was pictured in the newspaper smuggling a fake bomb on to a Boeing 757 carrying 200 passengers from Birmingham International Airport to Majorca. He obtained a job as a baggage handler at the airport despite providing false references, employment history, home address and bank account details. Three years earlier Mr France carried out another undercover expose at Heathrow. Coming up with a workable alternative to the security processes at Westminster will prove difficult. Some 14,000 people have passes for the Commons and as Mr France demonstrated, they are not searched when entering the building.
Andy McNab, the former SAS operative turned author, questioned the qualifications of those protecting Parliament. “Commons security is run by retired policemen or soldiers, but it doesn’t mean they have the skills,” he said.