UK: MI5 chief apologizes for failure to prevent Manchester concert bombing following public probe

The head of the British security service issued an apology for failing to prevent the deadly 2017 suicide bombing during a concert in Manchester. The apology follows the public inquiry that found that there was still a possibility that the bombing could have been stopped.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum apologized for the failure of the agency to prevent the 2017 suicide bombing during an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. At the time, a man detonated a homemade bomb at Manchester Arena as parents arrived to pick up their children who attended the show. 22 people, including an eight-year-old, died in the bombing, and 200 others were left injured.

“Gathering covert intelligence is difficult – but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma,” McCallum said in a statement.

The apology by the British spy chief follows the third and final report of the public probe into the bombing by John Saunders, who chairs the public investigation. While Saunders said he could not definitively say that the bombing could have been stopped, “there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained, which might have led to action preventing the attack.”

Saunders said that the MI5, whose agents were interviewed as part of the probe, failed to act fast enough. Following the publishing of the third and final report into the bombing, Saunders told a media conference that there was a “significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented the attack.” Saunders said he was unable to reveal the details for national security reasons and that this may leave the families of the victims wanting to know more.

Meanwhile, the British minister for Northern Ireland said on Thursday that he was encouraged by the response to the new post-Brexit trade deal for Northern Ireland that was announced this week. Chris Heaton-Harris said that the response to the new deal, now referred to as the Windsor Framework, was encouraging and that this was better than the original bill that was referred to as the Northern Ireland Protocol.