E-Paper
Sign In
iPhone | iPad
Android
Wed, Oct 09, 2024 | Rabi al-Thani 6, 1446 | DXB
°C
MI5 spy chief details security threats facing UK
McCallum warns of the dangers posed by Russia and Iran as well as growing concern about Al Qaeda and Daesh
- Reuters
- Updated: Wed 9 Oct 2024, 5:54 PM
MI5 Director-General Ken McCallum is photographed in London, Britain, on October 14, 2020. — Reuters file
Britain's domestic spy chief Ken McCallum warned of the dangers posed by Russia and Iran as well as growing concern about Al Qaeda and Daesh in his annual update on the threats faced by Britain on Tuesday.
Here are some of the main issues raised by McCallum, the Director-General of the Security Services known as MI5, in his speech at London's Counter Terrorism Operations Centre.
Recommended For You
Russia
McCallum said since Russia's attack on Ukraine, more than 750 Russian diplomats had been expelled from Europe, with "a great majority of them spies".
He said this had dented the Russian intelligence services' capability, and that this position was being maintained by denying diplomatic visas to those people Britain and allies considered Russian spies.
"Kick them out, keep them out," he said.
Instead, Russian state actors had turned to proxies including private-intelligence operatives and criminals from Britain and other countries to do "their dirty work", but this had diminished the professionalism of their operations and made them easier to disrupt.
He said the threat had got worse over the last year and there was a rising trend of "sabotage, arson and more".
Iran
Since January 2022, MI5 and British police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots "presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents", McCallum said, adding that since the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody in September 2022 there had been "plot after plot".
Like Russia, Iran was also using criminal proxies from drug traffickers to low-level crooks, he said.
China
China still remained a significant risk, particularly its threat to obtaining sensitive information from businesses and academia, he said.
However, he said China was "different" and because of Britain's multi-layered complex relationship with Beijing, it required a more nuanced approach.
"The UK-China economic relationship supports UK growth, which underpins our security. And there are also risks to be managed," he said. "The choices are complex and it rightly falls to ministers to make the big strategic judgements on our relationship with China."
Terrorism
The greatest concern was a worsening threat from Al Qaeda and Daesh, he said. While Daesh was not as strong as a decade ago, he said MI5 and many of its European partners were detecting Daesh-connected activity.
Of MI5's counter-terrorism work, 75 per cent was focused on radical extremists and 25 per cent on extreme right-wing terrorism, he said.
One in eight people under investigation were children under 18, a threefold increase in that proportion in the last three years, with ERW terrorism particularly skewed towards young people, he said. Most of the threats came from lone individuals, who could obtain inspirational and instructional material online.
UK riots
Britain saw days of rioting targeting asylum seekers and Muslims in August following the murder of three young girls in the northern town of Southport, with police and politicians saying disinformation being spread online had sparked the disturbances.
McCallum said "comparatively disorganized and spontaneous activities" caused the riots rather than foreign state involvement.
Sign Up For Breaking News Alerts
Be in the know. Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
