UK terror threat diversifies as MI5 flags far-right rise and Iran plots
MI5's annual threat update, delivered by director general Ken McCallum, says the UK terror threat has become more diverse, with far-right anti-migrant threats rising and Iran emerging alongside Russia as a state behind violent plots in the UK.
UK terror threat diversifies as MI5 flags far-right rise and Iran plots
The UK terror threat picture is changing shape. In his annual threat update, MI5 director general Ken McCallum said the danger to the country has become more diverse: far-right anti-migrant threats are on the rise, while Iran has now firmly emerged alongside Russia as a state behind violent plots in the UK.
McCallum rejected any idea that the two kinds of danger trade off against each other. "There is no law of physics dictating that rising state threats will be accompanied by diminishing terrorist threats," he said.
Far-right hostility tipping into violence
The update highlights the accumulation of years of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim hostility, which has produced an increase in cases of people "tipping into terrorist intent" - crossing from rhetoric into violence. This shift is described as one fuelled by political hate narratives and online subcultures.
MI5 frames the wider picture as a rising tide of hatred that may begin online but is morphing into violent intent in real life. McCallum also noted that authoritarian regimes are investing heavily "in trying to distort and divide our society".
Iran plots and the Fairford episode
A second trend in the update is that distant conflicts, such as the wars the UK did not start in Ukraine or involving Iran, have a habit of rippling back home. It is less than eight months since the US and Israel attacked Iran, subsequently with a little help from Britain - and Iran is now trying to direct terror plots in the UK.
The most striking episode is still unexplained: five men from London were found in three white vans in a village next to RAF Fairford shortly after midnight on 27 September. Nothing significant was found and nobody has been charged.
- McCallum warned that Iran had "ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites" - a likely reference to Fairford.
- The prime minister, Andy Burnham, said the previous day that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was "almost certainly" behind the episode.
- At the start of October, two Iranians from Liverpool and Salford were charged, accused of trying to make a chlorine powder bomb to target Jewish sites in Manchester.
Prosecutors alleged in that case that the two men were directed by a third party, believed to be in Iran. The two have not yet pleaded.
AI as a coming risk MI5 is watching
Artificial intelligence features prominently in McCallum's warnings. He said AI could refine terror plots, supercharge hackers, produce individually targeted propaganda - and even help develop a novel bioweapon. With emphasis, he added that this was a subject on which MI5 was "particularly focused".
The warning lands alongside a recent alert from Anthropic, which flagged five examples of scientists who had used Claude for researching novel pathogens, prompting debate about what is actually possible.
Resilience as the core message
One of the core messages of the update was that people, and the country at large, needed to focus on being more resilient. The tone was one of expectation rather than reassurance.
"In this new world, we should expect to be tested."
McCallum named the stakes plainly: "The protection of democracy – its institutions, its representatives, its principles – has never felt more vital".
The live next step sits in the courts: the two Iranians accused over the alleged Manchester chlorine bomb plot have not yet pleaded and face trial at the Old Bailey, while the Fairford incident remains uncharged, with nothing significant found.
