Britain’s security chief has sought more power and funding to fight “foreign threats”
British support for Ukraine has made London a target of Moscow’s spies, the head of the British Security Service, Ken McCallum, has claimed.
In his annual speech about threats said to be facing the UK, McCallum listed Russia right after terrorism, followed by Iran and China, while demanding more funding and warning about the dangers of the internet.
”The UK’s leading role in supporting Ukraine means we loom large in the fevered imagination of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s regime, and we should expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home,” McCallum said on Tuesday.
“The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more,” he added, using the acronym for Russian military intelligence.
According to McCallum, this “concerted campaign” requires “a strong and sustained response,” including the use of the new National Security Act “to its fullest extent.”
McCallum was the key force lobbying for the 2023 law, which granted Britain’s security and intelligence agencies wide-ranging new powers to battle alleged “malign activity undertaken by foreign actors” such as espionage, sabotage, or attempts to meddle in UK politics. Britain’s Security Service is unofficially known as MI5, while the external Secret Intelligence Service is MI6. Both are descended from the Secret Service Bureau, founded in 1909.
On Tuesday, McCallum reiterated the claim that the UK is under threat by “autocratic regimes” who target “our democracy, journalists and defenders of human rights,” as well as sensitive government information.
According to the MI5 head, the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats beginning in 2022 was unprecedented and “put a big dent in the Russian intelligence services’ ability to cause damage in the West,” but Moscow allegedly responded by recruiting proxies via the internet.
McCallum used the speech to once again call for the “ability to track the online activity of those who mean us harm,” calling it “utterly crucial.”
“Privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided,” McCallum stated, adding that the alternative is “allowing child abusers and terrorists to operate at scale, without fear of consequences.”
Earlier this year, former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that Russia was responsible for “disinformation campaigns, the enemies in this country using cyber to divide us, to rob from us, to spy on us, and to create frictions in our society.” His comments came after British police broke up an online scamming ring targeting the elderly that had no connection to Russia.
