The Telegraph :
Theresa May’s unprecedented decision to deploy up to 5,000 armed troops at key strategic sites makes her the first Prime Minister to use a new plan for a show of force in the face of major terrorist threats.
It puts her at odds with her predecessor David Cameron who was reluctant to use the controversial power.
Operation Temperer – the government plan to put thousands of soldiers on the streets in response to a major terrorist threat, was devised in 2015 and had been a secret until it was accidentally leaked to a newspaper.
Whitehall officials had been keen to keep it under wraps because it was considered so sensitive.
David Cameron was fearful that implementing the plan would provoke comparisons to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, when British soldiers patrolled the streets for decades.
He was also worried that it might give the impression that the government had lost control and was imposing martial law. The only other Prime Minister in recent times to deploy soldiers in mainland Britain in response to a terrorist threat was Tony Blair, who sent tanks and 450 members of the armed forces to guard airports in 2003 after warnings of a plot to bring down an airliner.
