WIREDGOV

Statement following the recent meeting with the Prime Minister and UK security, intelligence and police officials following the murder of Alan Henning. 

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister met with senior officials from the intelligence agencies, Foreign Office, Home Office, police and military this morning to discuss the murder of Alan Henning and the government’s response.

The Prime Minister was updated on work overnight to take down the video of the barbaric murder. He also discussed with officials the collective effort to hunt down the murderers. The PM was clear that we must keep doing all we can to ensure that these terrorists are found and brought to justice for their heinous crimes and we will keep working with our US partners and those in the region to do this.

ISIL’s brutality will not persuade us to change our approach. Indeed, the senseless murder of an innocent man only reinforces our resolve to defeat this terrorist organisation and to eradicate the threat they pose to Britons - whether those in the region or here on the streets of the UK.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister also raised a second video released last night which shows an apparent British ISIL fighter unmasked delivering a further message. The police are urgently investigating the contents of the video, including possible terrorism offences relating to it