Rising rightwing violence
Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, warned that extremists with anti-immigration views are increasingly likely to contemplate attacks on immigration centres and hotels used to house asylum seekers in the UK. He told officials the shift from radicalised rightwing sentiment to intent to commit violence was the “most marked trend” in the agency’s caseload over the last year and has helped push up the overall national terror threat level.
State and hybrid threats from Russia
McCallum also singled out Russia as “aggressor number one”, saying the Kremlin continued to lash out against the West through assassination plots, explosive threats and cyber-attacks that at times approached conventional warfare. He recalled Moscow’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum via anti-EU coverage on state-backed outlets RT and Sputnik and through troll social media accounts, noting there remained a clear difference between “what may have been attempted and what actually resulted”.
Concerns over AI and biological risks
The MI5 chief said he was “particularly focused” on the risk that hostile states or terrorist actors could use artificial intelligence to create new biological threats. In response, he announced the establishment of a new AI threat assessment centre within the security services, intended to examine and monitor emerging risks posed by the technology.
Broader security implications
McCallum’s remarks underscore a broadening of the security landscape faced by British intelligence, with both homegrown extremist violence and sophisticated foreign-state activity presenting challenges. The combination of ideologically motivated attacks, disruptive cyber operations and the potential for AI-augmented biological threats has informed the agency’s recent operational priorities and threat assessments.