Hamas October 7 attack has led to 'radicalisation moment' which is influencing young children, with the UK facing the most 'acute threat' of hostile foreign interference and spying since the Cold War, Met Chief warns

Matt Jukes said there has been 15-fold rise in referrals about online extremism

Terrorists, hostile states and spies present a greater threat to the country than at any time since the Cold War, a senior police chief said yesterday.

Matt Jukes, a Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, fears that Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 have led to a ‘radicalisation moment’ which is influencing children as young as 11.

At the same time the UK faces the most ‘acute threat’ of hostile foreign interference and spying since the Cold War as Britons head to a general election this year, he warned. The Scotland Yard officer likened the convergence of threats to looking at a dashboard of risk indicators where the ‘needles are all moving in the wrong direction’.

Counter-terrorism arrests are at ‘unprecedented levels’, with a 15-fold increase in referrals about online extremism, calls to the anti-terrorism hotline doubling and a 25 per cent increase in intelligence about potential terrorists, he revealed.

Matt Jukes, a Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, likened the convergence of threats to looking at a dashboard of risk indicators where the ‘needles are all moving in the wrong direction’ (File Photo)

In the last few months of 2023 there were more terrorism arrests than in the whole of 2022, with 33 suspects held in the last month alone.

In addition, the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit has received more than 3,000 reports since October 7, the most it has received since it was set up in 2010.

Of those, 700 cases are being probed for potential breaches of terrorism laws, a seven-fold increase on last year.

Mr Jukes fears that record numbers of children are being drawn in by extremist material on social media and artificial intelligence-generated false imagery, which has led to a 13 per cent annual hike in referrals to the Government’s anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent.

He warned that children who have never been engaged in extremism are now stepping over the line in their online posts about the conflict in the Middle East, with youngsters aged 11 and 12 cropping up in terrorism casework ‘on a monthly basis’.

A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023

Mr Jukes, who is the national counter-terrorism police lead, described Britain facing a ‘dangerous climate’, adding: ‘This is not simply rhetoric, we are seeing the signs of intense risk across a number of activities.

‘I would describe the speed and the scale of the impact for those global events as extraordinary.

‘We always see spikes (of internet referrals after terrorist incidents). But what we’ve seen since October 7 has been a spike which is higher and more sustained than ever before.’

He echoed Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s warnings earlier this week of ‘danger and instability’ around the world. Mr Jukes said: ‘We are very concerned by the risks of espionage and foreign interference in parts of state apparatus and hostile state activity. That challenge is greater now than it has been since the days of the Cold War.’