Britain risks an “unparalleled” threat of homegrown radicalisation because of the war in Gaza, the former head of MI6 warned on Thursday.
Sir Alex Younger told of the “alarm” in the UK’s intelligence and security circles about the potential longer-term consequences of Israel’s devastating war, which has claimed more than 18,000 Palestinian lives.
The ex-chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if UK spies were looking at a potential rise in terrorism as a result of the reaction to what is unfolding in the Middle East.
He said: “Speaking domestically, my understanding is that whilst we don’t see a serious uptick now, what really alarms my former colleagues is a scale of radicalisation as a result of what is happening in the Middle East that is pretty well unparalleled.
“That augurs trouble ahead.”
Sir Alex added: “We in the West should reflect on the hubris with which we've approached recent years - the kind of monopoly on the right way to run the world, and think about our history and the way we've behaved and how that sounds when we talk about our values.”
The Met police have stepped up arrests of people waving extremist anti-Israel banners at recent pro-ceasefire rallies in London, and have logged a surge in incidents of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred since the October 7 rampage by Hamas across southern Israel.
A week after the attacks, MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said the domestic intelligence agency was paying “very close attention” to events in the Middle East.
He said: “There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat and/or changes in shape in terms of what is being targeted, in terms of how people are taking inspiration.
“Terrorists can draw inspiration not just from things they see happening inside the UK but things they see happening in the Middle East or on the continent or elsewhere,” he said. “So we would be silly not to be paying very close attention, and we are.”
Prior to the latest Middle East conflict, Mr McCallum had been sounding the alarm increasingly about threats from far-right groups in Britain, warning that children as young as 13 were under investigation for their links to white supremacist groups.
For the third year running, the number of referrals by teachers and social workers to the Government’s Prevent anti-radicalisation programme for extreme-right wing “concerns” was higher than the number for Islamist ideology, data showed last week.
