MI5 boss lists all of the threats going through the UK together with China, Russia and ‘snakes’
MI5 boss Sir Ken McCallum has issued a ‘call to arms’ for all of us to protect Britain from terrorists and Russia on the anniversary of 9/11
Director General of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum(Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
The boss of MI5 has issued a “call to arms” for all of us to treat national security as a shared challenge.
Sir Ken McCallum admitted “we now face the worst of both worlds” as he warned of the threats the UK faces 25 years on from the 9/11 attacks in the US.
In a rare public intervention, the spooks chief reckons his officers must tackle a “markedly different” criminal landscape today compared to 2001.
Sir Ken wrote: “This is my call to arms after 25 years: government, business, academia, and the public must treat national security not as the specialist concern of a handful of agencies, but as a shared national endeavour.”
He added: “Sadly, mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures… but the terrorist threat now sits alongside strategic national security threats posed by capable states.”
And citing ex-CIA director James Woolsey, who spoke of the West slaying “a large dragon” after the Cold War, Sir Ken said: “We now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are back, but snakes persist.”
The “dragons” are thought to refer to threats from Russia and China, while the “snakes” are the dangers posed by terror groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda.
The Glasgow-born MI5 boss also warned against getting complacent. He said: “We must resist the temptation to admire the defences we built yesterday and instead build the ones we will need tomorrow.”
Elsewhere, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch reckons the world is a more dangerous and less trusting place following 9/11.
And she blasted the government over defence funding, saying the UK had to be “serious” about security.
She said: “I remember being able to go onto an aeroplane without all of the intensive scans that we do now, taking off so much.
“It was an easier time. I think now we’re more suspicious. We’re suspicious of each other.
“We’re certainly more suspicious of strangers. And I’d like us to get back to that better time.”
