As the UK continues to face incredible danger at the hands of potential terrorists, one expert has revealed that just over a dozen plots were foiled at the last minute by police
A counter-terror police expert has exposed just how vulnerable the UK is to potential attacks. He revealed that there are as many as 1,000 extremists living in the UK who are “capable of attacks” — but are being monitored.
With attacks including the Manchester synagogue attack, the Southport stabbings and the Borough Market attacks sadly becoming more and more common in our society, national security is becoming more important. Now, the UK’s weak spots have been revealed by the UK’s head of counterterrorism policing.
He revealed that radicalisation by Islamist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) are on the rise once again. He also admitted that following a string of lone wolf attacks in Europe and the US, officers should be ready for an immediate shift to deal with incidents as and when they happen.
Speaking to LBC, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor admitted that the nation’s counterterrorist force is snowed under with referrals for potentially dangerous people. Based on his experience, he revealed that the government is seeing over 10,000 referrals to the Prevent programme, used to de-radicalise potential attackers.
Taylor went on to blast social media bosses including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg for not stepping in earlier to stop people from radicalisation. He added that despite ISIS’ forces disbanding after its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in 2019, the threat never went away, and the terrorist cell has reformed.
“The threat that we saw 20 years ago has never gone away. It kind of ebbs and flows. In terms of capabilities overseas, the influence to get things done abroad, we’ve definitely seen an uptick in some of that,” he explained.
Speaking about ISIS’ goal, he said: “There’s no question that their ambition has always been to attack the West. We know that their ambitions have grown and we are seeing people who are still intent on doing that sort of activity; it just has never gone away.”
Figures released in the interview found that there were some 800 live investigations being carried out between counterterrorism police and MI5. This accounts for over 1,000 extremists who are deemed as being “active threats” to Britain — though they are being monitored.
Meanwhile, Prevent saw a 27% increase in referrals throughout 2025, the highest it has ever been. Taylor said he was concerned at such a rise, adding that Prevent does not have the resources to “deal with the volume of things that are going through it now”.
He also added that Prevent is doing well to nip the potential radicalisation in the bud, as based on their figures, some 50% of referrals have no guiding ideology that could lead them to carry out an attack. But when asked about the source of how they form these ideas, Taylor pointed to social media.
“They [Musk and Zuckerberg] are not doing even close to enough,” he said. “It comes down to what their moral perspective is, how they’re running their business.”
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