MI5 operating in new era of terror and state threats, says chief

MI5 is struggling with near-record terrorism investigations and soaring state threats, the intelligence agency’s boss has warned.

In his annual speech, Ken McCallum said the security service was operating in a “new era” and was pushing “the biggest change in MI5’s mission since 9/11”.

He said state threats from Russia, China and Iran had increased and MI5 had seen a 35% increase in the number of people it investigated in the last year.

Mr McCallum added that Chinese state actors in particular pose a daily national security threat to the UK, and MI5 last week revealed that it had intervened operationally to disrupt China’s activities out of national security concern.

In his wide-ranging speech, Mr McCallum spoke of MI5 operating in a “new era” where terrorism remains “an ever-present threat”.

He revealed that MI5 and police had foiled 19 late-stage attack plans and dealt with “hundreds of emerging threats” since the start of 2020.

“The overall scale of the terrorist threat remains enormous,” he said, explaining that his teams mostly focus on individuals or small groups rather than larger established networks.

One in 232 people arrested for terrorism last year were children under the age of 17, he said.

He also said that Al Qaeda and the Islamic state group had “become ambitious once again” and were “taking advantage of instability abroad to gain a more solid foothold.”

Addressing threats from state actors such as China, Russia and Iran, as well as espionage methods, the director-general said that state actors “are turning to ugly methods that MI5 is more accustomed to seeing in our terrorism cases.”

State threats include espionage of the UK Parliament, universities and critical infrastructure.

He warned that “surrogate” actors were viewed by Russia as disposable and said, “Once you get caught, you are abandoned.”

While in Iran, he also said MI5 had pursued more than 20 potentially deadly Iran-backed plots in the last 12 months.