Manchester’s Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said: “The change in the national threat level from critical to severe does not alter our response to Monday’s horrific attack, which claimed so many innocent lives. But there’s still more to do to get the degree of confidence we want.”

By Saturday morning analysts at the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which sets the threat level, were satisfied the danger posed by the network linked to the Manchester bomber had lessened through arrests and also after examination of materials seized after a string on raids starting on Tuesday. Britain’s senior counter-terror officer said “immense” progress had been made in the probe into the associates of suicide bomber Salman Abedi and a “large part” of his suspected network had been dismantled. The country should remain vigilant.”

Speaking after a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee on Saturday, she said the decision had been taken after “a significant amount of police activity” over the last 24 hours. The decision to drop the threat level down one grade to severe means intelligence analysts are satisfied that risk is now under sufficient control. The country should remain vigilant.”

The massacre at the Manchester Arena carried out by Salman Abedi, in which 22 people were killed, was the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britain since the July 7 attacks in London in 2005. The prime minister said Operation Temperer, in which military personnel were deployed to bolster security in the wake of the Manchester bombing, would be scaled back after the bank holiday weekend.
Theresa May announces that the British terror threat level has been downgraded from "critical" to "severe" and that Operation Temperer will be phased out shortly, following productive counter-terrorism investigations.