Britain needs to 'defend itself robustly' against Chinese security threats, MI5 boss warns

In his annual assessment of the range of security threats facing the UK, Sir Ken McCallum said that a more hostile world was “forcing the biggest shift in MI5’s mission since 9/11”.

Addressing security correspondents at MI5’s central London headquarters, Sir Ken said: “MI5’s fight against terrorism remains intense. My teams are currently running near-record volumes of investigations.

“But we are also having to contend with a second menace of equal or even greater scale, in fast-rising state threats.”

The Director General revealed that his officers had seen a 35 per cent increase in the past year in the number of individuals being investigated for involvement in state threat activity.

He said: “The means espionage against our Parliament, our universities, our critical national infrastructure.”

Sir Ken’s warning comes as the Government finds itself embroiled in a row over the collapse of a recent China spying case, with accusations that political interference led to the prosecution being abandoned.

MI5 believes that Russia, Iran and China pose the most significant threat when it comes to state directed activity.

And the domestic security agency says the tactics adopted by this triumvirate of nations are becoming increasingly aggressive.

The MI5 boss warned they were also “consistently descending into ugly methods MI5 is more used to seeing in our terrorism casework.

“My teams are routinely uncovering attempts by state actors to commission surveillance, sabotage, arson or physical violence, right here in the UK.”

On China, the Director General said: “The UK-China relationship is by its nature complex, but MI5’s role is not.

"We detect and deal robustly with activity threatening UK national security.”

Pushed on whether he would define China as a national security threat, Sir Ken said that certain individuals acting on behalf of the Chinese state were undoubtedly a threat.

He said: “I am MI5 born and bread. I will never back off from confronting threats to the UK, wherever they come from.”

On terrorism, he said it remained “an ever-present threat” which demands unrelenting focus.

Since 2020, MI5 and counter terror police have disrupted 19 late-stage attack plots.

On average, terrorism investigations tend to be narrower in scope, focusing on individuals or small groups, rather than larger, more established networks.

Sir Ken warned that Al Qaeda and Isis are once again becoming more ambitious.

They are personally encouraging and directly inciting would-be attackers in the West.