British police report rising online threats from hostile states and far-right groups

Senior British policing officials said Thursday that technology and online platforms are increasingly being exploited to threaten the United Kingdom. Vicki Evans, a senior national coordinator for counterterrorism at the Metropolitan Police, described the threat from hostile states as the most rapidly escalating mission for counterterrorism police.

She said more than 20 Iranian-backed plots, including assassinations and kidnappings, occurred in 2025.

Hostile-state activity Evans also reported a constant stream of Russian surveillance plots aimed at people and institutions in Britain. She said Russia has recruited individuals through apps such as Telegram to carry out vandalism and arson, including an attack on a London warehouse storing communications equipment for Ukraine.

Police are still investigating whether arson attacks on Jewish sites earlier this year are connected to Iran, Evans said.

Far-right extremism Laurence Taylor, head of counterterrorism police, said the national threat level was raised from substantial to severe in April, partly because cases linked to extreme far-right ideologies are growing substantially. He cited an 18-year-old woman sentenced in May to nearly 20 years in prison after an ax attack that police attributed to her extreme right-wing views.

Taylor added that extreme views appear to be challenged less often, allowing previously unacceptable content to become more prevalent.

Online radicalization of minors Evans said teenagers as young as 15 have been arrested in connection with proxy plots. She said online content is being designed to attract young people by mixing propaganda with gaming footage, historical images and music.