MI5 is ‘launching an massive recruitment drive’ to train up new spies who can combat terror threat
MI5 has launched a "massive recruitment drive for spooks" to combat the thousands of extremists planning to wage war on Britain.
The news comes as it emerged a staggering "23,000 UK-based jihadists" are being monitored by counter-terror agencies, and one Whitehall source described the potential threat as “unprecedented".
The Sunday Mirror claimed that MI5, based on Millbank, London, is now "frantically recruiting spooks in record numbers" after the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena which killed 22 people and left 64 injured.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the that the shocking number of potential terror attackers shows “no one should be in any doubt about the scale of the challenge we face keeping people safe.”
UK authorities are holding 500 probes into 3,000 individuals and yesterday it was reported up to 23,000 people are considered "subjects of interest" to counter-terror agencies.
MI5 have around 4,000 staff who can monitor 3,000 suspects but round-the-clock surveillance on just one suspect requires 30 watchers, according to the paper.
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This arm of British intelligence service is said to be concentrating on 500 investigations involving 3,000 jihadists it believes are most dangerous, and has foiled 18 plots since March this year.
In this period Khalid Masood, 52, was shot dead after mowing down more than 50 pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge and stabbing a House of Commons policeman to death
Britain's official terror threat level had been raised to “critical” - the highest of five possible stages - by Theresa May after Salman Abedi slaughtered innocent people on Monday night.
But the level had been reduced to "severe" as the PM said Operation Temperer, which has allowed the military to be deployed to key sites, will continue until the end of the bank holiday.
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