Theresa May says Britain is too tolerant of jihadist ideology and vows a hard line against terror
THERESA May has declared Britain is facing a new crisis of copycat terror - as she warned there is still “far too much tolerance” of extremism across the country.
Addressing the nation from No10’s steps, the PM heaped praise on the bravery of police and bystanders who tackled the London Bridge attackers.
But she also insisted that the unprecedented new wave of EIGHT attacks in the last three months meant “enough is enough”.
A “new trend in the threat we face” means a major overhaul of security powers is now necessary, Mrs May also said, as she ordered a full scale review of the country’s counter-terrorism strategy.
Dressed in black, the PM said: “Terrorism breeds terrorism, and perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully-constructed plots after years of planning and training but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack”.
She declared: “We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are.
“Things need to change.”
Revealing urgent new action will be taken in four areas, Mrs May pledged;
- A fresh offensive to defeat the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism” that is brainwashing young minds by pushing Britain’s values far harder,
- A clampdown on safe spaces in Britain where extremism breeds – be it in prisons, faith schools, mosques or universities – to be lead by a new Extremism Commissioner,
- A full overhaul of security powers, including longer jail terms for terror offenders who commit lower level offences such as incitement,
- To redouble her efforts to forge an international agreement to stop internet companies from allowing terror to breed online,
Branding the war against Islamist extremism as “one of the great challenges of our time”, Mrs May insisted she no longer give any quarter to anyone who conducts or condones it.
She said: “While we have made significant progress, there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.
“So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out – across the public sector and across society.
“That will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations, but the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism – and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities but as one truly United Kingdom.”
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The PM added: “United, we will take on and defeat our enemies”.
On top of the dramatic increase in DIY-lone wolf attacks, the PM also declared the new crisis after the significant increase in speed in which they are now being put together, government sources revealed.
Intelligence chiefs identified eight different plots in the last 73 days alone.
Three – Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge – went ahead, but a further five were thwarted, including another suspected knife attack on Whitehall in May.
In comparison, there were 13 plots in the four years between soldier Lee Rigby’s murder in May 2013 and March this year.
A security source told The Sun that the new frequency of plots is “unequalled” in the 16 years of fighting terror since 9/11 – leaving police and MI5 working to the max to keep up with them.
MI5 are also very alarmed at how swiftly the crude plots are now being put together, giving them just a matter of just days to discover them rather than months or years previously.
Following the Nice attack in 2016 when 86 people were killed by a 19 tonne truck, ISIS-inspired jihadis are now opting for vehicles and knives instead of more sophisticated bombs.
Security bosses revealed two weeks ago that they are currently running 500 investigations into 3,000 different terror suspects, with 23,000 having been flagged up as subjects of concern.
The PM’s declaration marked a significant shift in government thinking.
After the Westminster attack on March 22, Home Secretary Amber Rudd insisted there was no need for any “knee-jerk reaction” to introduce new laws.
Mrs May was at her Chequers official retreat in Buckinghamshire when news of the attacks broke, and immediately asked her police detectives to drive her back to London.
Early yesterday morning, she chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency committee COBRA.
Also there were Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and police and intelligence agency chiefs.
The threat level was kept at its second highest notch, Severe, and not raised to Critical again because there is no intelligence that a new attack is imminent.
Later, the PM met staff and patients hurt in the attack at Kings College Hospital, in south London’s Denmark Hill.
Mrs May also took a series of calls from world leaders passing pledging sympathy and support.
US President Donald Trump was one of the first to ring, getting through to the PM at 3am on Sunday morning after the White House switchboard was told she was still awake.
She also spoke to France’s new president Emmanuel Macron as well as Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Senior officials held a second COBRA meeting at 6pm last night.
Echoing the PM’s new offensive against tolerance, Boris Johnson posted on his Facebook account: “To those who sympathise or encourage or harbour or aid or abet these killers - in any way - we say enough is enough.
“Your time is up. The wells of tolerance are running empty.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd also promised more action would be taken against “people are trying to weaponise” young people.
She added: “We need to do more, we need to look about what else we can do in extremism... what else we can do to help people call it out”.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith admitted yesterday that the Coalition government’s downgrading of Labour’s tough control orders to the weaker Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures had “watered down” the fight against terror.
There was also criticism over former Chancellor George Osborne’s move to slash the intelligence agencies’ budget by 12% in 2011 and 2012.
A total of 1,300 armed police have also been cut since 2010, as well as 20,000 officers overall.
Muslim Council of Britain was one of the first groups to condemn the attacks, issuing a statement at 3.13am yesterday morning.
Its Secretary General Harun Khan insisted that Muslims everywhere “are outraged and disgusted at these cowards who once again have destroyed the lives of our fellow Britons”.
He added: “That this should happen in this month of Ramadan, when many Muslims were praying and fasting only goes to show that these people respect neither life nor faith”.