GB News Breakfast was interrupted for a breaking update on the RAF Fairford terrorism investigation as police confirmed no explosives were found in the vehicle involved. Presenters Alex Armstrong and Ellie Costello delivered the alert, and former Editor of The Sunday Express David Wooding appeared on the programme to comment.
Confusion over who alerted police
Wooding remarked: "Honestly, Agatha Christie couldn't make a plot like this, could she?" He questioned whether the incident was a farce or a whodunit, noting that the farmer who called police just after midnight on Saturday into Sunday was not the person who actually alerted the authorities. Instead, it was somebody among the group of five young men in their 20s who were carrying out the suspected plot.
He said: "I found this baffling to begin with because we had President Trump live on the day saying we foiled it, and we think, well did they foil it, or was it the farmer who foiled it? Now we find out it was neither. They foiled it themselves. So was it a foreign power doing a dummy run? If so, how did they get five British young men in their 20s to take part in this? It really is bizarre."
Police already on the ground
Wooding clarified: "It seems that the balaclavaed people, which the farmer spotted, were not these young men. They were the police who were already on the ground." He added: "So the whole thing is raised more questions than answered. It's really incredible, and of course we're doing our best not to speculate here because we none of us know."
He went on to explain that counter-terrorism laws in the UK are "exceptionally robust," allowing detention of suspects for up to a fortnight without requiring release after 36 hours. He noted: "They could still detain them for two weeks and carry on interrogating them. So that makes you wonder. Well, perhaps it wasn't a terrorist incident after all. So it requires someone to step forward and explain what is happening here."
Suspects released on bail
Reports emerged that the alleged bomb conspiracy targeting RAF Fairford was thwarted after one of the suspects contacted police themselves. One of the five men allegedly rang 999 in the early hours of Sunday before their arrest in the Gloucestershire village of Whelford, near the base.
The men, detained on suspicion of explosives offences and subsequently terrorism, were all freed on bail on Monday. All British nationals from London and aged between 23 and 25, they remain under investigation. In a Tuesday update, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said they "must adhere to strict conditions" as officers continue to follow lines of inquiry.
