Theresa May is currently in the midst of a pretty torrid week, with her Brexit negotiations unravelling at the seams.

Good work, Leavers, how’s that working out for you?

In addition to that mess, it has now emerged that British intelligence agency MI5 managed to uncover an assassination plan against the prime minister.

Rather than the usual bullet from range method, these guys wanted to get up close and personal. Here’s the Telegraph:

An Islamic extremist planned to use an improvised explosive device to blow up the gates of Downing Street before entering No 10 and making an attempt on Theresa May’s life.

Two men have been charged with terror offences and are due to appear in Westminster magistrates’ court.

Details of the alleged terror plot were set out to Cabinet members on Tuesday during a briefing by Andrew Parker, the head of MI5.

Over on the Independent, they are reporting that the bomb was to be disguised in a bag, and that once inside the attackers would use knives to attack May.

Whilst there has been some praise for MI5, the briefing by the head of the agency came just hours after a damning report about missed signs ahead of the Manchester attack.

22-year-old Salman Abedi, the attacker who blew himself up inside an Ariana Grande concert, could possibly have been stopped:

In advance of the attack, officers had on two separate occasions received unspecified intelligence on him “whose significance was not fully appreciated at the time” and which could have led to his case being reopened.

“In retrospect, the intelligence can be seen to have been highly relevant to the planned attack,” the report said.

Mr Anderson concluded that while it was “unknowable” if reopening the investigation would have thwarted Abedi, it was “conceivable that the Manchester attack in particular might have been averted had the cards fallen differently”…

Abedi had first become an MI5 “subject of interest” in 2014, but it transpired he had been mistaken for someone else and his case was closed.

A meeting to discuss his case was planned for May 31, but he carried out his attack on May 22.

I suppose credit where credit is due, though, because MI5 did report that they had thwarted nine terror plots in the past 12 months alone.

Not sure if that will make the British public rest easy or alarmed, to be honest.

[source:telegraph&independent]