The criticism levelled at MI5 by the chief coroner for England and Wales today over its role in advance of the London Bridge terror attack is significant.

Britain’s internal security agency has been told in no uncertain terms to improve the systems it uses for investigations into suspected terrorists, including better procedures to identify potential attack sites and routine reviews of those targets.

While London Bridge was far from the only major extremist attack in 2017 — a year in which Westminster, Manchester Arena, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green were also targeted to devastating effect — it was the only Islamist plot that had been the subject of a live investigation at the time it happened.

It is seen as a far graver failing by