MI5 forced to ‘pare back’ counter-terrorism work due to rogue states, says chief

MI5 has had to “pare back” its counter-terrorism focus because of the growing threat from Russia and other hostile states, the security agency’s boss has said.

Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, said the agency has to look at its “finite” resources and make “uncomfortable choices”.

“We now face much, much more aggression from nation states,” he said in an interview recording obtained by the Times. “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.

“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.”

Read more: The Guardian (UK)