MI5 boss warns of big rise in terror plots from Russia and Iran
Britain is facing a “staggering” uptick in assassination attempts on its soil by Russia and Iran, warned Ken McCallum, the head of MI5 today, as he delivered a rare public speech in London.
"We've seen plot after plot here in the UK, at an unprecedented pace and scale," said McCallum, who told an audience at MI5’s counter-terrorism operations centre that the number of investigations into state-orchestrated threats that his agency is handling has risen by 48% over the past year.
Since March 2017, 43 late-stage plots to commit "mass murder", using firearms and explosives, have been foiled by the MI5 and police, McCallum also confirmed.
Some of the MI5 chief’s revelations about terror threats felt familiar, such as his warnings of the dangers of “lone individuals indoctrinated online" and the fact that MI5’s targeted counter-terrorism work remained split between "25% extreme right-wing terrorism, 75% Islamist extremism”, with Al-Qaeda and Isis both enjoying a resurgence.
But there also appears to be a striking shift in the types of security threats facing Britain. That is, in the number of plots now also coming from hostile nation states, as opposed to independent groups or lone individuals.
”The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats. We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war," he said.
Since 2022, Russia’s intelligence service, the GRU, has been linked to dozens of incidents across Europe, including cyber attacks, acts of espionage and attempted assassinations.
The GRU, said McCallum, has been on “sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets” with “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions”.
Yet Moscow is not the only culprit. According to McCallum, the MI5 and police have also responded to 20 serious Iran-backed plots since 2022, which presented “potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents". Largely attacks targeting dissidents or regime critics based in Britain.
This summer, seven people were accused by UK authorities of setting fire to a London warehouse owned by Ukrainian businessmen, an arson attack allegedly paid for by Russian intelligence. Two British men - Dylan Earl, 20, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, and Jake Reeves, 22, from Croydon - have now been charged with helping Russian intelligence services.
Back in March, Pouria Zeraati, an Iran International presenter was stabbed outside his home in South London in an attack which British authorities believe was linked to the Iranian regime. And, in Spain, a politician who publicly supports the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an Iranian opposition group, was shot in the face in broad daylight late last year.
As for the individuals undertaking these attacks, McCallum said both Moscow and Tehran were hiring low-level criminals to perpetrate the violence. In fact, sometimes these individuals are hired by other criminals, and unaware they are even working for Iran or Russia.
The MI5 chief admitted that prioritising resources is a challenge for the agency given the range of threats Britain is contending with. Though he was clear too that there is no sign of these threats dissipating any time soon.
British intelligence, he said, is “powerfully alive” to the risk that spiralling violence in the Middle East could directly trigger attacks in the UK.
And with Britain’s leading role in supporting Ukraine meaning “we loom large in the fevered imagination of Vladimir Putin’s regime", we should, he added, expect to see continued acts of Russian aggression at home.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
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