MI5 chief warns anti-immigration extremism is tipping into terror intent

The Big Picture

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum has warned that the most significant change in the Security Service's terrorism caseload over the past year has been cases in which extremist anti-immigration and anti-Muslim grievances have moved toward terrorist intent.

In an annual threat update in London on Tuesday, McCallum said potential targets included migrants, Muslims, immigration centres and asylum hotels. He said the elevated risk was driven in significant part by extreme right-wing terrorism, alongside continuing threats from Islamist groups including al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

The warning came as McCallum described a wider national security environment in which threats from hostile states have grown sharply, while artificial intelligence creates new opportunities for terrorists and foreign adversaries.

What Happened

McCallum said extreme right-wing terrorism often involved young people who had been radicalised online. He disclosed that MI5 had recently investigated a radicalised extreme right-wing 13-year-old in the UK. Information generated during that inquiry helped an international partner prevent a lethal attack, he said.

The UK terrorism threat level was raised to severe in April, the BBC reported, meaning an attack was assessed as highly likely. McCallum said Islamist groups continued to direct and inspire attacks, but that the growth in extreme right-wing terrorism was an important contributor to the threat picture.

McCallum also said MI5's counter-Iran work had led to more than 50 Iran-linked arrests in the UK over the past year. Much of Iran's activity has been aimed at British Jewish communities, he said, but Tehran was seeking to expand its ambitions toward harder targets, including military sites.

He said Iranian interest extended beyond RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, describing an incident near the base last month as "not unique." Reports differ on the number of people arrested after suspicious vans were seen near the base on Sept. 27. The Guardian reported five men were involved, while the BBC and NBC News reported seven people were arrested and released on bail.

Why It Matters

McCallum said threats from foreign adversaries had quadrupled over the past decade, and that MI5's work countering state threats and terrorism was now roughly equal in scale. The service is devoting more resources to state threats than it did during the Cold War, he said.

He called Russia "aggressor number one," accusing the Kremlin of pursuing hybrid warfare through cyberattacks, sabotage, misinformation and criminal proxies. McCallum said Moscow had sought to influence the 2016 Brexit referendum through Russian media coverage and online trolls or bot farms, while drawing a distinction between attempted interference and any demonstrated effect on the result.

On China, McCallum said MI5 was focused on concerns including espionage, coercion, democratic interference, theft of university research and intellectual property, and efforts to obtain political secrets.

Artificial Intelligence Risks

McCallum warned that hostile states and terrorist groups could use artificial intelligence to improve reconnaissance, attack planning and drone operations, and to create propaganda tailored to individual users. MI5 has already encountered terrorists seeking to use AI to improve reconnaissance and attack methods, he said.

He said the most serious prospective threat could be AI assistance in developing new or existing biological weapons, though the BBC reported that McCallum described that risk as not yet realised. MI5 has launched an AI Threat Assessment Centre to assess emerging risks and, in McCallum's words, "separate the bluster from the realities."

What Happens Next

McCallum did not outline specific new counterterrorism measures in his public remarks. His assessment nevertheless points to a security agenda requiring MI5 to address both domestic radicalisation and intensifying activity by foreign states, while judging which rapidly developing AI threats are credible.

The RAF Fairford investigation remains unresolved publicly. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the incident was highly likely coordinated in Iran and almost certainly directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.