MI5 is being forced to ‘pare back’ its fight against counterterrorism due to growing threats of meddling from Russia and other aggressive countries.
Security agency boss, Ken McCallum revealed Britain is having to try and tackle ‘grander and more sophisticated attacks’ from hostile states.
According to the MI5 director general, the attacks include arson, sabotage and assassinations.
He said as a result the country had been strong-armed into making ‘uncomfortable choices’ due to their limited resources in dealing with said threats.
It is understood the Times obtained the comments from a copy of a podcast interview between the intelligence boss and outgoing cabinet secretary Simon Case, which was marked ‘official sensitive’.
The MI5 boss divulged there was ‘much more aggression’ from certain states, before adding that Britain had until now a ’20 to 30-year holiday’ from ‘big player’ nations when it came to significant conflict.
‘We’ve had to make some of those uncomfortable choices in recent years; how could we pare back a bit on the amount of our capacity we are spending on countering terrorism in order to be ready to meet these somewhat grander and more sophisticated, in some respects, threats from nation states,’ he said.
In the interview he also said the intelligence agency was having to face growing threats of terrorism from teenagers who were being poisoned by ‘wrong things’ online.
He revealed that one in eight teens under 18 years of age were being monitored by the intelligence agency.
MI5 director general,Ken McCallum, (Pictured) said Britain had been strong-armed into making ‘uncomfortable choices’ due to their limited resources in dealing with growing threats from hostile states such as Russia
It is understood the Times obtained the comments from a copy of a podcast interview with the intelligence boss and outgoing cabinet secretary Simon Case – which was marked ‘official sensitive’
The MI5 boss revealed there was ‘much more aggression’ from certain states, before adding that Britain had until now a ’20 to 30-year holiday’ from ‘big player’ nations in serious conflict (Pictured: Vladimir Putin)
It comes as the head of MI5 warned Russia was on a ‘mission to generate mayhem’ on British soil during a chilling speech in October.
Ken McCallum said the security service has ‘one hell of a job’ to do battling enemies such as Vladimir Putin’s ‘henchmen’.
He also warned of a surge in plots from the Islamic State terrorist group and nations such as Iran.
In the last year alone, MI5 has seen investigations into hostile state threats soar by almost 50 per cent with a leap in assassination and sabotage plots.
Describing the current landscape as ‘the most complex and interconnected threat environment we’ve ever seen’, Mr McCallum warned that Kremlin spies are seeking to strike Britain.
In his annual assessment, he said: ‘The UK’s leading role in supporting Ukraine means we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime and we should expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home.’
Russian intelligence agents are operating with ‘increasing recklessness’ as he warned: ‘[They] are on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets.’
Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers roll on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow
Russia is on a ‘mission to generate mayhem’ on British soil, the head of MI5 previously warned (Pictured: Vladimir Putin holds his papers during the Summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on October 8)
The country also faces increased threats from Iran with MI5 seeing ‘plot after plot [at] unprecedented pace and scale’.
There have been 20 Iranian-backed plots posing a lethal threat to journalists and dissidents in Britain since January 2022.
Iran is also plotting attacks at ‘an unprecedented pace and scale’ with the risk that state aggression could ‘broaden’ due to the Middle East conflict, he warned.
‘We’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK at unprecedented pace and scale,’ Mr McCallum said.
Both Iran and Russia are using criminal proxies, from international drug traffickers to ‘low-level crooks’, to carry out their ‘dirty work’ in the UK, he added.
Mr McCallum said: ‘Detecting criminals prepared to have their strings pulled by states has at least some similarities to spotting would-be terrorists dancing to the tune of online radicalisers.
‘It is a familiar challenge. We’ll keep finding them.’
The spymaster also went on to issue a stark warning to anyone collaborating with a hostile state.
‘If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you,’ he said: ‘It’s a choice you’ll regret.’
The spy chief said that the country faces a ‘staggering’ terror threat from children – with minors as young as 13 being poisoned by online extremism. Pictured: An Iranian boy wearing a keffiyeh and holding a toy gun
It comes as Russian spies were believed to have hidden an incendiary device inside a parcel loaded on a plane heading for Britain.
The device later dramatically burst into flames only hours later at a DHL warehouse in Minworth, Birmingham on July 22.
Counter-terrorism police are said to be investigating Russia’s involvement in the terrifying incident.
No injuries were reported and the blaze was handled by staff and emergency services.
However fire brigade investigators believe there could have been far more serious consequences had it ignited while in flight, The Guardian reports.
The revelation comes just a day after German intelligence warned a similar incident in Leipzig, also in late-July, came close to causing a fatal plane crash.
Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s intelligence service, said that the disaster was narrowly averted after a parcel ignited on the ground at the DHL logistics centre in Leipzig rather than mid-air as intended.
The plane had been delayed, with experts warning there could have been a very different outcome had it taken off on time.
It remains unclear who the parcel was sent to or the culprit behind the attack, however security services believe Putin’s agents were involved in the near-crash.
Mr Haldenwang told a Bundestag committee that had the package ignited after the flight had taken off, the plane would have crashed.
Counter-terrorism police had been investigating whether Russia was behind an incendiary device being hidden inside a package on a plane heading for Britain, before it burst into flames (Pictured: DHL centre in Minworth, Birmingham)
The revelation comes after German intelligence warned a similar incident at a DHL centre in Leipzig (pictured), came close to causing a fatal plane crash
Kremlin aggression is ‘putting people’s lives at risk’ as well as affecting ‘all areas of our free society’, he said.
The suspect package is believed to have been sent from Lithuania, before it exploded at the logistics centre, setting an entire freight container alight.
Germany’s foreign intelligence service chief Bruno Kahl said that Putin was likely to further ‘test the West’s red lines’, amid the increase in tensions between Russia and Nato over the despot’s invasion of Ukraine.
He said there was now a willingness at a ‘previously unknown level’ to attempt sabotage from the Kremlin.
It is unclear whether the plane targeted was a cargo or passenger aircraft.
