TONY Blair went ahead with the midnight opening ceremony of London’s Millennium Dome despite a bomb alert threatening him and the Queen.
The risk from an explosive device, allegedly in a tunnel under the dome, was taken so seriously the police began to dig through the floor of one of the attractions two hours before the celebration was due to begin.
The disclosure that the event in 2000 nearly had to be called off has been made by Jennie Page, former chief executive of the London Millennium Dome project, who has spoken for the first time since she was sacked in February 2000. “I was told by the police there was a coded message of a bomb,” says Ms Page, speaking on this Sunday’s Radio 4 program The Reunion.
“They said the bomb was in the southbound lane of the Blackwall tunnel, under the dome.
“I found myself running from taking the prime minister from the play zone to the VIP centre to meet the Queen, where she was to receive a millennium medal. While this was happening, I was told the police were starting to excavate the body zone, which was above the tunnel. I had to take the decision whether or not to abort the opening.”
In the end, Paul Condon, then commissioner of the Metropolitan police, in consultation with home secretary Jack Straw, advised it would be safe to continue, as the threat seemed to be a hoax. Ms Page said the Queen was not told of the bomb alert but Mr Blair was.
Peter Higgins, designer of the play zone, one of a series of attractions in the giant tent, was with Mr Blair and his family just after the prime minister learned of the bomb scare.
Mr Higgins, who is interviewed for the radio program, says he first heard of the threat when Ms Page discussed it in the recording studio before the show. Only then did he realise why he had found “Blair, ashen-faced with his wife and children. They were gathered together in what I’d call a spiritual way”.
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