Counter-terror officers would have intercepted ringleader Khuram Butt and his two accomplices as they drove through the City of London shortly before launching the van and knife attack. But MI5 had downgraded surveillance on Butt and police never discovered he was trying to hire vans and trucks on the day of the outrage. Scotland Yard was on alert for terrorists using vehicles as weapons of mass murder after attacks in Berlin, Nice and at Westminster Bridge just three months earlier. A senior Counter-terrorism Command officer told the Old Bailey: “If I’d got a call from MI5, I would have taken some form of action… I would have had him stopped in that vehicle.” The detective, known only as M, was in charge of Operation Hawthorn, the Yard investigation into Butt, the inquest into the attack was told. It launched in early 2015 following information from MI5.

Islamic State-inspired fanatic Butt was branded a “high-risk extremist linked to attack planning” and put under a P2 investigation – the second highest priority, the court heard.

MI5 downgraded the operation to “medium-risk” in 2016.

Butt was technically still under “active investigation” when he led the terror attack which claimed eight innocent lives on Saturday, June 3, 2017.

But the investigation was being shut down and Butt was classed as a “closed subject of interest”, the court heard.

In the days before the outrage, no one monitored the movements of Butt, 27, and fellow killers Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22.

It also emerged that police failed to pass on an urgent tip-off from Butt’s brother-in-law Usman Darr.

Mr Darr rang the Anti-Terrorist Hotline in September 2015, leaving a recorded message about a “radical change” in Butt and how he was becoming increasingly extremist.

But he never got a call back and his information never reached M or his team, the court heard.

The hearing continues.

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