LONDON, May 27 (UPI) -- The British people have been told they can cautiously celebrate the reduction of the terrorist threat against them this weekend.
Patrick Mercer, homeland security spokesman of the opposition Conservative Party, told the BBC's Radio 4 that he understood the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair was about to reduce its official assessment of the terrorist threat facing the country from from level two to level three, on a scale of one to six. He said the move was the result of successes in breaking up radical Islamist terror plots.
"Intelligence was received in November 2003 to suggest that there was likely to be an attack across the United Kingdom somewhere, that a real plot was being hatched," Mercer said.
"Since then, we have seen some very successful arrests by the security services and, as a result, I believe it will be reduced in the next day or so to 'substantial', which means that there's still a threat but where it is coming from and against whom it is targeted is not known," he said.
