Iraq posed no threat to the UK when then prime minister Tony Blair took Britain to war there, former MI5 boss Dame Eliza Manningham Buller has said.

The head of MI5 has given a chilling assessment of the scale of the terror threat in the UK, warning it will last “a generation”.

Despite moves towards greater disclosure, MI5 remains an agency shrouded in secrecy, writes Political Editor Harry McGee.

Britain is facing a “serious and sustained threat” of terror attacks at home and abroad, MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller warned today.

A BIOLOGICAL, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack on a western city is “only a matter of time”, the head of the British home security service, MI5, said yesterday.