Minister retreats over terror claims

The Government was forced to back down yesterday over comments by a cabinet minister comparing the threat of terrorist acts facing Britain to the 11 September attacks on the United States.

John Reid, the Labour Party chairman, told journalists during a visit to Manchester: "This is not a game. This is about a threat of the nature that massacred thousands of people in New York." But he had to make a hasty retreat after inadvertently breaching the Government's decision not to disclose the scale of the threat that prompted a security clampdown at Heathrow airport on Tuesday by 1,000 police officers and 450 troops.

Mr Reid insisted his remarks had been "misinterpreted" and that he was not talking about the magnitude of the threat. But in a tacit admission that he had made a mistake, he said he understood why this had happened. He explained that he had been responding to a question on whether the security operation was "a public relations exercise, a spin".

He added: "I said I did not think that was even worthy of an answer, that we were dealing with a huge problem – the phenomenon of international terrorism, which gave us things like the twin towers in New York – and the suggestion that any government would use that sort of subject for spin and PR I thought was beneath contempt."

The Tories demanded an emergency Commons statement today so the public could be "accurately informed". The Opposition has been briefed on the intelligence that prompted the operation, which is believed to involve a warning that surface-to-air missiles could shoot down a plane.

Tony Blair's official spokes-man played down Mr Reid's remarks, saying he was "dealing with the very offensive suggestion that this is in some way got up by the Government and by the security services".

He added: "It is worth pointing out that this is real life. This isn't a movie, they [the troops] aren't extras on a film set. They are there to protect the public and the decision to deploy them was taken with that end, and that end solely, in mind."

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said shutting Heathrow had been considered but ruled out. "For those who are threatening us it would have been a victory," he said. "Trade would have suffered and the transport of people would have been disrupted – this would have been a catastrophic thing to have done."

Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said he was prepared to close Heathrow if there was an imminent threat. Mr Blair told MPs the Government was sometimes forced to "take measures we would prefer not to take" to protect the public.