A rare public appearance by the head of Britain’s MI5 intelligence services, Ken McCallum, who, among other things, warned about the growing influence of Russia and Iran on British soil.

ISIS has resumed its attempts to export terrorism to Britain, the head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency has said, according to Politico, also warning that the threats it is making are the ones he is most concerned about.

Ken McCallum, director general of the MI5 security service, yesterday gave the first briefing regarding the threats facing the UK from 2022, offering a broad assessment of threats from the Middle East, Russia – and much closer to Britain.

He also warned that there is now an increased threat of terrorism from al-Qaeda “and in particular” from ISIS, also known as Islamic State.

The ISIS terrorist group came to the attention of the international community in 2014 when gunmen seized large parts of northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria.

“Today’s Islamic State does not have the strength it had a decade ago. However, the group’s terrorists have resumed their efforts to export terrorism,” the M15 intelligence chief told a news conference in the heart of London.

Ken McCallum recalled the bloody attack on the Moscow concert venue last March launched by the ISIS-K offshoot as a “violent demonstration of its capabilities.”

Britain’s intelligence boss MI5, whose agency oversees domestic intelligence, said that in the last month alone more than a third of his agency’s top-priority investigations had in some way links to organised terrorist groups overseas.

Russia and China

McCallum also in his appearance in London – rare for a UK intelligence chief – warned about the growing influence of Russia and Iran on British soil by targeting “increased state aggression” from Moscow and Tehran.

The head of Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency said the number of investigations by the agency into hostile states such as Russia and Iran had increased by almost half in a year.

For its part, Russia’s GRU intelligence agency is, he said, on a “constant mission to create chaos on British and European streets.”

More than 750 Russian diplomats – “the vast majority of them are spies” – have been expelled from Europe since Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin launched the war in Ukraine, he said.

Europe’s tactic of “kick them out, keep them out” when it comes to intelligence officers, McCallum stressed, has led Russia to increased reliance on cyberattacks.

This year has also seen an increase in the use of proxies such as private intelligence agents and criminals within the UK and abroad to do the “dirty work” against “enemy stats”, he added.

In a message to would-be criminals ready to receive money from Iran or Russia to carry out illegal activities in the UK, Britain’s M15 intelligence chief said: “It is a choice you will regret.”

He also described Iran’s threat to Britain as growing at an “unprecedented scale and pace” adding that the UK had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iranian-backed plots by 2022.

Meanwhile, McCallum was less aggressive on China as the debate rages in British politics over the best way for London to reach out to Beijing.

“China is different,” he said, adding:

“The UK-China economic relationship supports London’s growth, which supports our security.”

When asked about the apparent lack of criticism of Beijing, McCallum stressed that he “did not intend to diminish” the importance of the threat from China and that MI5’s interest is “unchanged”.

He also maintained that the security services remain vigilant.