Far-right terrorists pose an “organised and significant” threat to the UK, the county’s most senior terror officer has warned while revealing that four plots have been foiled in the past year.
Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, made the figure public for the first time to “illustrate the growth of right-wing terrorism”.
“The right-wing terrorist threat is more significant and more challenging than perhaps the public debate gives it credit for,” he said.
“Right-wing terrorism wasn’t previously organised here.”
But security services have been warning of a shift since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, with the past year seeing five mainly Isis-inspired terror attacks leave 36 victims dead in London and Manchester.
Giving a lecture at an event held by the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Rowley said: ”A deeply concerning characteristic is how both far-right and also Islamist terrorism are growing, allowing each side to reaffirm their grievances and justify their actions.“
He said police and MI5 have disrupted 10 Islamist plots and four far-right plots since the Westminster attack in March last year.
Mr Rowley, who is to retire next month, declined to give details of the four cases for legal reasons, but said they represent a combination of “organised and individual” action.
He was speaking after a neo-Nazi was convicted of planning a terror attack at a gay pride event in Cumbria.
Ethan Stables, 20, wrote online that he was “going to war” after arming himself with weapons including a machete and axe and was arrested while walking to his target.
Another suspected far-right extremist is awaiting trial for allegedly planning to murder the Labour MP Rosie Cooper.
He and five other men arrested in connection with the plot are accused of being members of the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action.
Several alleged members have been charged with terror offences, including serving British soldiers, following a wave of police operations.
It became the first far-right organisation to be banned by the Government in December 2016, sparking efforts by members to evade arrest by splitting into renamed regional factions including Scottish Dawn and NS131.
National Action gained notoriety for celebrating Thomas Mair, the far-right extremist who murdered Ms Cox during the EU referendum campaign.
Another fanatic, Darren Osborne, killed a grandfather when he rammed a hired van into Muslim worshippers leaving mosques in Finsbury Park in June.
The father-of-four, who was radicalised within weeks as he read far-right material by the former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, Britain First and others, was jailed for life last month.
