The United Kingdom is facing an assassination attempt “staggering rise” from hostile states, particularly Russia and Iran, as those countries increasingly hire criminals to conduct their operations. According to Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, in a rare public speech, he identified some of the key threats to the UK.
During Tuesday’s speech, McCallum said the number of state threat investigations handled by MI5 had risen 48 percent in the past year and blamed Iran, Russia, and China as the top three state culprits on such threats. “The first 20 years of my career were dominated by terrorist threats,” he said. “Now, we face these alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots amid a significant land war in Europe.”
McCallum recounted the challenges facing MI5, underlining the ever-richening complexity of the threat landscape. He said his agents and the police have disrupted 20 plots connected with Tehran since 2022, warning that Iran may broaden its targets in the UK if tensions escalate further in light of recent missile attacks on Israel.
The case involving Russia was no less ominous. Even after the expulsion of over 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, McCallum added that “Russian state actors are increasingly using proxies to achieve their objectives.” He said, “The GRU is on a sustained mission to create chaos on British and European streets,” citing examples of recent arson and sabotage carried out in increasing recklessness.
From international drug traffickers to petty criminals, both Russia and Iran have been known to recruit people to perpetrate such attacks. The UK’s official terror threat level currently stands at “substantial,” meaning an attack is likely. Since 2017, MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 late-stage terror plots.
McCallum also flagged the re-emergence of the collapsed ISIL in Iraq and Syria. He blamed the internet for the revival of this terror group. It has never been easier for young people to access such extremist materials in the comfort of their bedrooms. The intelligence service observed that such youth are increasingly lured into online extremism. This includes internet memes that are made appealingly.
“Extreme right-wing terrorism is particularly prevalent among the young, fueled by propaganda that prolifically engages with online culture,” McCallum concluded, underlining how urgent the need is to deal with these emerging forms of threats.
