The incompetence of MI5 in failing to prevent Salman Abedi detonating his bomb at the Manchester Arena in 2017 beggars belief. According to Sir John Saunders, who chaired the inquiry into the Islamist atrocity which killed 22 people, a better response from MI5 ‘might have prevented the attack’.

In publishing his 226-page report, Sir John did not spare the intelligence service for missing several opportunities to thwart Abedi, who made little attempt to conceal his extremist ideology.