MI5 has had to ‘weaken’ its focus on counter-terrorism due to the growing threat of Russia and other hostile states, the security agency chief said.
Ken McCallum, CEO of MI5said the agency must look at its “limited” resources and make “uncomfortable choices.”
“Now we’re facing much, much more aggression from nation states,” he said in a recorded interview obtained by the Times. “We’ve basically had a 20- to 30-year vacation from this kind of big player, complex countries in serious conflict with each other. It’s back, I’m afraid.
“So there’s something quite profound about that … we’ve had to make some of these uncomfortable choices in recent years … how could we reduce a little bit the amount of our capacity that we spend on counterterrorism to be ready to meet those little larger and more complex, in some ways, threats than nation states.”
He made the comment in an interview with Simon CaseRetired Cabinet Secretary, for Civil Service Podcast. The case is being made, the newspaper reported.
McCallum said: “We will look at how much of our limited capacity we can spend on state activity from Russia or Iran or Chinahow much we should spend on different forms of terrorism, but also how much of our capacity we can spend on things that we think might pose a threat tomorrow morning and how much we should keep to plan how we’re able to do that, what does the nation need from us in five years?
“We need to invest in new technologies, new skills. So you always have some version of these uncomfortable choices.
The head of MI5 recently warned that Russia intends to cause “chaos” on the streets of the UK and that Iran-backed plots that pose “deadly threats” to the British people are growing at an “unprecedented pace and scale”.
In a speech in OctoberThe director-general of the security agency said Britain should “expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home” from Russia, with its military intelligence agency, the GRU, on “prolonged missions”, adding: “We have seen arson, sabotage and more .”
The number of state threat investigations carried out by MI5 had “increased by 48%” in the past year, and 13% of people investigated by the security agency for involvement in UK terrorism were under 18, he said at the time.
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He called the rise in the number of children being investigated for terrorism in the UK “staggering” and warned of “sly online memes” drawing them into far-right ideologies.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “This innovative series of talks has been brought to the Civil Service Learning site to offer an insight into the experiences of senior leaders from across the Civil Service to enable other civil servants to learn and develop, which has been so vital throughout their careers.
“The comments made by Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, echo those he has made publicly before. In his October threat update, he talked about the challenges of prioritization.