Move from anti-immigration or anti-Muslim views to violence is ‘most marked trend’ in spy agency’s caseload over last year

Extremists holding anti-immigration opinions are becoming increasingly likely to consider carrying out terrorist attacks against immigration centres and asylum hotels in the UK, the head of MI5 has warned.

Ken McCallum said a shift from radicalised rightwing sentiment to violence was “the most marked trend” in the spy agency’s caseload over the past year, contributing to a rise in the overall UK terror threat level.

Russia remains “aggressor number one” as the Kremlin continues to lash out against the west with assassination plots, explosive threats and cyber-attacks that at times stop “not much short” of conventional warfare.

Moscow tried to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum with anti-EU coverage on RT and Sputnik media, and via troll social media accounts, but there was a big difference between “what may have been attempted and what actually resulted”.

He was “particularly focused” on the risk of hostile states or terrorists using AI to generate new, deadly bioweapons, and announced the creation of a new AI threat assessment centre to distinguish fact from fiction.

There was a “concerning trend of violence targeted at political figures, religious or community groups”, as demonstrated by the killing of the former minister and Reform UK spokesperson Anne Widdecombe.

Threats from other states had quadrupled in the last decade and were running on par with MI5’s counter-terrorism mission. “We have again entered a new era of national security,” he said.