Investigation into MOD Phone Incident

Why was nobody manning the MOD phone?

This was a special number that had been given out to local residents

living close to RAF Fairford saying, "If you see any suspicious activity,

ring this phone line anytime, day or night." The

farmer did exactly that at 1:00 AM yesterday morning.

Nobody picked up. She then dialed 101.

She wasn't sure what to do next, and that didn't work out.

So then she decided to ring 999, and clearly

it was a very serious incident. There were then helicopters overhead,

and there was

an evacuation of 85 properties. But if it hadn't have been that farmer at that

specific time, someone with that much diligence, someone who was that

determined to report this, where would we be?

Uh, so because there is a live investigation underway

and because we don't

comment on operational security matters, um, I won't speak to that point

this morning except to reinforce the point that

while thanking that member of the public for her vigilance, I

also want to thank the police and the security services for their

work.

Okay.

Which takes place-

But you can't say why they didn't answer the phone

... every year in every part of the world to

keep us safe.

Are we on a tea break?

I'm not going to comment on... I'm not going to comment on

that particular

issue this morning with the live investigation underway.

Okay. Defense Secretary, now I know you can't comment, a-

as you've been saying, on

this, but in July-