British police foiled 24 terrorist plots in Britain in two-and-a-half years

Counter terrorism investigators have foiled 24 attacks in Britain in the last two-and-a-half years, the Metropolitan Police boss says.

Commissioner Cressida Dick says 16 Islamist plots and eight inspired by extreme far-right views have been disrupted since April 2017.

The figures were revealed just weeks after the Met Police announced the fastest-growing UK terrorist threat is from far-right extremism.

But the force said the biggest threat still came from jihadists.

In September, Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu warned the most likely attempts linked to right-wing extremism would be carried out by “lone actors” and – likewise with Islamist plots – the authorities could not guarantee to foil every plot.

Police revealed last month that a quarter of all terrorism arrests were linked to the far-right and the number of cases had jumped from six per cent to 10 per cent in the last two years.

At the time, Mr Basu said 22 plots had been foiled since March 2017 and seven were linked to far-right views.

Children as young as 14 were involved in extremist activity, journalists were told.

Mr Basu said young people and those with mental health issues were particularly vulnerable to becoming radicalised.

The UK’s national terror threat level is currently “severe”, a position it has mainly been at for years.

Meaning an attack is “highly likely”, is the second-highest level out of a list of five.

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre last raised the threat to “critical” – the highest level, meaning an attack is “expected imminently” – in September 2017.

It followed the bombing of a Tube train in south-west London.

Months before that attack, the terror threat level was raised to “critical” following the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017, but it was later lowered to “severe”.

Threat levels do not have an expiry date.

Source: Mirror