UK police to counter hostile state threats with new unit

British police said on Friday they had set up a new unit to counter threats posed by China, Russia and Iran, saying they were very concerned about risks ahead of a national election expected this year.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, Britain’s head of counter-terrorism policing, said the evidence and the sense among his officers was that the challenge posed by hostile states was “greater now than since the days of the Cold War”.

“I don’t want to be coy. We are talking about parts of the state apparatus of Iran, China and Russia,” he told reporters.

Britain passed a national security act last year in an attempt to make it harder for countries to spy, steal trade secrets and interfere in the political system.

Jukes said the new specialist investigations unit would use the act’s new powers. “We will be the most overt part of the UK security community stepping up its response to those hostile state actions,” he said.

Read more: Reuters