Britain after 9/11: Decisions made in the first 72 hours
9/11 didn't just shake America. Here's how Tony Blair and Whitehall responded in the hours after the attacks, from closed airspace to Bush.
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It was supposed to be just another morning. It was 11th September 2001, a date now firmly etched in history for all the wrong reasons. 9am was beckoning, and thousands were preparing for a typical busy workday at New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC).
They had barely made it into their offices when these cosy preconceived notions were dramatically shattered. An aircraft smashed into the WTC’s North Tower at 8:46am. Just a tragic accident? Onlookers might have thought so before another plane struck the adjacent South Tower just after 9am. The picture was now clear: this was a terror attack.
A new Sky HISTORY special, 102 Minutes Inside the Towers, recounts the harrowing experiences of those who only just survived. Another 2,977, including 67 Britons, lost their lives. How would the British government respond to 9/11? Sky HISTORY examines what Whitehall decided in the hours that followed.
Britain watches the horror of 9/11 unfold
With 25 years having now elapsed since the 9/11 attacks, an entire generation has grown up without realising how much terrorism reshaped our world. If you are old enough to remember the attacks, you likely also remember how you first heard the news.
Tony Blair had served as UK Prime Minister since May 1997 and was only months into his second term. On 11th September 2001, he was preparing to speak to an audience at a Brighton conference when he was alerted to what was happening in New York.
Abandoning his previously prepared speech, Blair took the opportunity to publicly address the ‘most terrible, shocking events’ in the United States. ‘I am afraid we can only imagine the terror and carnage there and the many, many innocent people who will have lost their lives.’
The UK government moves quickly
In 2021, POLITCO interviewed Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell about conversations in the prime minister’s circle in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The government’s first concern, according to Powell, was whether Britain could itself be targeted by terrorists.
: ‘Could there be copycat attacks? You don’t quite know what you’re preparing yourselves against. But the police reinforced the streets – we got more police in Whitehall and places like that almost immediately. The transport secretary closed the airspace over London.’
So, how did America respond to 9/11 at first? Downing Street initially knew little on that matter, making multiple failed attempts to get in touch with then-US President George W Bush. Powell remembers getting a phone call from a panicked Blair.
‘He moved immediately – and I was impressed – to the big picture: who did it and how is Bush going to react? And how do we influence Bush so that he doesn’t do anything stupid? That was where he was immediately, on the phone.’
How did America respond to 9/11?
Before the day was out, Bush made a televised speech outlining his administration’s intended response to the atrocities. ‘Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.’
Bush also declared: ‘The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice.’
The UK stands ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the US
Blair gave a press statement elaborating on his thoughts about the daunting new era in which the world now found itself. He reeled off a list of ‘precautionary measures’ his own government had taken. These included strengthening security at airports, government buildings and military premises.
‘No flights will take off from the United Kingdom for which we cannot apply the highest standards of security for air crew and passengers. Private flights have been stopped except where specifically authorised. Flightpaths into London have been changed so that there will be no civil overflights over central London.’
Blair insisted that the British ‘stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy’. Foreshadowing the crucial role the UK would play in the ‘war on terror’, Blair added that ‘we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world.’
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