Six key points from MI5’s Andrew Parker speech on the terror threat in Britain

A lot of rot is written about what MI5 thinks, because the spooks don’t talk –even to deny wrong stories (like the supposed Remembrance Day Plot to kill the Queen, etc). But now and again, they do speak. Andrew Parker, the agency’s director-general, gave a wide-ranging speech last night which worth reading in full. It makes the front pages today. Here are half a dozen points which jumped out at me:

1. The terror threat is heating up.

‘Terrorist-related arrests are up 35 per cent compared with four years ago. Since 2010, more than 140 individuals have been convicted for terrorist-related offences’.

2. Three Islamist plots have been intercepted ‘in recent months’. Since 7/7, police say the spooks have intercepted a major Islamist plot a year. Parker says things are speeding up:

‘Strikingly, working with our partners, we have stopped three UK terrorist plots in recent months alone.  Deaths would certainly have resulted otherwise. But we cannot be complacent.