Ken McCallum, giving an annual threat update, said state threats were increasing and said the UK also faced an increased immediate threat from Iran, which had threatened to “kidnap or even kill” 10 people based Britain last year. The spy chief said Russia had suffered a “strategic blow” after 400 spies were expelled from across Europe after the start of the war in Ukraine, but said the Kremlin was actively trying to rebuild its spy network. Britain had expelled 23 Russian spies posing as diplomats after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, but since then “over 100 Russian diplomatic visa applications” had been refused on national security grounds. McCallum accused Russia of making “silly claims” about British activities without evidence, such as the UK being involved in the Nord Stream gas pipeline attack. But the head of MI5 said “the bottom line” is that “the UK must be prepared for Russian aggression for years to come”. Iran’s “aggressive intelligence services” were actively targeting Britain and had made “at least 10” attempts to “kidnap or even kill” British or UK-based people since January, as the regime felt more pressure than ever. Last week, the Foreign Office summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador over allegations that two London-based journalists faced death threats from Tehran-backed agents over their reporting on the protests in Iran. The Iran International news channel has taken precautionary measures to protect its journalists after it was informed by the Metropolitan Police earlier this week that it believed there were credible threats to the journalists’ lives. China, McCallum said, was playing “the long game” by seeking to cultivate long-term contacts with politicians and intimidating members of the Chinese diaspora, even as a pro-democracy protester “appeared to be the subject of violence” outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester. On terrorism, the MI5 chief said eight “potentially lethal” terror plots had been disrupted in the past year, a mix of Islamist and right-wing terrorism, although none related to the Queen’s funeral in September. The far-right terrorists – some as young as 13 – were operating in “a muddled soup of hatred”, McCallum said, fueled in part by a “growing number of right-wing extremist influences” outside the political establishment. Such extremists have made further efforts to obtain 3D-printed or improvised guns and other weaponry – often long before a specific terrorist threat develops – and McCallum said he believed the far-right threat was a problem “that seems to be enduring”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Islamist terror accounted for “about three-quarters” of the terrorism burden, McCallum added, mostly from “radicalized terrorists seeking to carry out low-sophistication attacks”. Low sophistication did not mean low impact, however, the spy chief added, citing “the horrific murder” of MP Sir David Amess a year ago. Tracking down such “car terrorists” was an inherently difficult challenge, the MI5 leader continued, and investigators faced “the often complex mix of extremist ideology with personal grievance and individual vulnerability such as mental ill-health”. Earlier this month Andrew Leak, 66, died after a petrol bomb attack targeting migrants in Dover, in what police described as terrorism after several days of investigation. Police, he said, “had difficult judgments” about whether an incident constituted a terrorist attack and that confused or unclear ideologies were “really a conundrum for us as to how best to manage these risks.” Social media posts by Leak revealed he wanted to end illegal immigration to the UK and in his last tweet an hour before his attack he had threatened to “wipe out Muslim children” and made other threats to migrants.
