Lord Blunkett: Troops Should Be Used 'Very Sparingly Indeed' On Streets

Former home secretary Lord Blunkett has said troops should be used "very sparingly" on the streets, after they were assigned to guard high-profile locations such as Buckingham Palace and Parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May increased the terror threat level to "critical" in the wake of the Manchester bombing.

Lord Blunkett told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:

"You should use military personnel very sparingly indeed in a democracy."

"If there is an insurgency and therefore you know that people are at risk then, of course, you would use the military but it is only in [a] very rare circumstance that you would even backfill.

"I have no problem with the military outside Buckingham Palace. I would have considerable problems if the military were used, for example, this weekend at Wembley."

Lord Blunkett admitted his doubts about authorising the use of the military in 2003 in response to concerns about Al-Qaeda

While in office, he stepped in to move troops away from the passenger terminals at Heathrow as it was alarming the public, he said.

Lord Blunkett also raised concerns about leaked images from the bombing - including crime scene photos - which have been published in the New York Times. He said:

"It's been said a number of times... it undermines trust not just between the intelligence agencies but between intelligence agencies relating to the media because this is the New York Times, a 'liberal' newspaper who normally acts responsibly.

"So whether they have literally lost their marbles, I don't know, but the implications of it leaking between agencies and from agencies to the media is very serious matter indeed."

It comes after the chairman of the Police Federation warned that the deployment of military personnel to the streets highlights the fact the police "do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own".

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, however, said:

"I think the vast majority of the public will be utterly reassured to know that... we have the ability to call upon and have called upon the military in this way, and actually we now have more armed police officers out on the streets."