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The director general of MI5 has told Sky News his intelligence officers are “focused with particular intensity” on a growing risk of attacks within the UK following events in the Middle East.
In a rare interview, Ken McCallum said: “Sadly, over the course of my career, it has often been the case that events in the Middle East can then echo in Europe, in the UK, and so my teams are absolutely alert to the possibility that events in the Middle East cause some people in the United Kingdom to attempt some form of attack of whatever sort.”
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In his first remarks on the Israel-Hamas war and its global security repercussions, Mr McCallum also told Sky News:
• There is “sharpened concern” of multiple threats – from far-right antisemitism, Islamophobia, Islamist extremism, and rising state-level aggression – predominantly from China, Russia and Iran
• The national threat level – currently set at “substantial” – is under constant review to ensure it remains appropriate
• The world is a “very uncertain place right now”
Mr McCallum was speaking at an unprecedented public gathering of the heads of domestic intelligence agencies from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in California.
The meeting was focused on the threat of emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, but the crisis in the Middle East was the dominant focus on the sidelines.
Mr McCallum said the intelligence chiefs would use the rare face-to-face time to discuss in private what the Hamas attack and its repercussions meant for the world.
The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. Pic: AP
Asked about the threat level in the UK, Mr McCallum said: “The threat level,…
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