MI5 forced to shift focus from terrorism to Russia due to ‘finite capacity’

MI5 will be forced to turn focus away from terrorism and towards Russia and other hostile states as a result of the security agency’s “finite capacity”, its boss has said.

The agency will have to make “uncomfortable choices” in the face of “much more aggression from nation states”, said Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5.

“In effect, we had the 20 to 30-year holiday from that kind of big player, sophisticated states in serious conflict with each other. It’s back, I’m afraid,” he said in an interview recording obtained by The Times.

“And so there is something quite profound about that … we’ve had to make some of those uncomfortable choices in recent years … how could we pare back a bit on the amount of our capacity we are spending on countering terrorism in order to be ready to meet these somewhat grander and more sophisticated, in some respects, threats from nation states,” Mr McCallum added.

The recording was of an interview with outgoing cabinet secretary Simon Case and was made for a civil service podcast which Mr Case is making, according to The Times.

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“We’ll be looking at how much of our finite capacity can we spend on state activity from Russia or Iran or China, how much do we have to spend on various forms of terrorism,” Mr McCallum continued.

“But also how much of our capacity can we spend on things that we think might be a threat tomorrow morning and how much do we have to keep back to plan for how we are capable to do what the nation needs us to do in five years’ time?

“We need to invest in new technology, new skills. So you always have some version of these uncomfortable choices.”

In a speech in October, the UK’s top security boss warned that Russia wanted to cause “mayhem” on British streets and that Iranian-backed plots which pose “lethal threats” to Britons are being ramped up at an “unprecedented pace and scale”.

Mr McCallum said the UK faced terrorist threats “alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war” – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he added.

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The UK can also expect to see more aggression from Russia in the UK, with Putin’s military agency, the GRU, on “sustained missions”.

State threat investigations have increased by 48 per cent over the last year, and 13 per cent of people investigated by MI5 for involvement in UK terrorism are under 18, he added in October.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said of the Simon Case interview: “This innovative conversation series was provided on the civil service learning site to offer insight into the experience of senior leaders from across the civil service, to allow other civil servants to learn and develop, as is so vital throughout their careers.

“The comments made by Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, reflect those he has previously made publicly. In his October threat update, he talked about the challenges of prioritisation.”