A UK citizen convicted of plotting a suicide attack at Heathrow Airport has been jailed for 40 years in the US.

Minh Quang Pham, 33, was sentenced for supporting the terrorist organisation al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in 2011.

In January, he pleaded guilty to three counts of terrorist-related activity based on his support for the group, though he denied he ever intended to carry out his plot or harm anyone.

No attack ever occurred.

Pham, a former Vietnamese national, was extradited to the US in 2015 having first been arrested in the UK in 2012.

Scotland Yard said its Counter Terrorism Command provided key evidence that helped shape the case against Pham, also known as Amin.

He pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to AQAP, one count of conspiring to receive military training from AQAP and one count of possessing and using a machine gun in furtherance of crimes of violence.

A court in New York heard Pham was directed by al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki to detonate explosives in Heathrow's arrivals area.