Ministers are holding an official emergency (“COBRA”) meeting this evening on the Israel-Hamas conflict—their first on any possible terror threat.
This comes after Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, which is seeking clarification over its policing of extreme language, warned that the terrorism threat in Britain is being “accelerated” by the Middle East conflict. He said the country was facing a “particularly challenging time” which could see extremists at home motivated by fighting abroad.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman will meet with national security officials to discuss whether the views and potential actions of individuals living in this country might warrant a raising of the national terrorism threat level. This currently stands at ‘substantial,’ meaning a terrorist attack is likely. Above this are ‘severe,’ meaning an attack is highly likely, and ‘critical,’ meaning such an event is highly likely in the near future. It would be down to the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to make any official changes.
Asked how worried Britons should be about the terrorism threat, Education Secretary Robert Halfon said:
Well, I can’t answer for that. I’m not at that COBRA meeting. I’m sure it will be announced later on. But, of course, we have to make sure that British citizens are safe and secure from the threat of terrorism, as the government always does …
When you hear that Jewish schools have to close their doors, when you hear of students—I am the universities minister as well—I get messages from Jewish chaplaincy service in higher education that Jewish students are having Palestinian flags draped over their cars, or doors knocked on of the Jewish chaplain, with people … saying: ‘We know where you live.’
A Reuters report suggests that the meeting will look at an increase both in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents.
A terrorist attack linked to the Israel-Hamas war is already alleged to have taken place in Britain earlier this month, though details of the incident have been kept well under wraps. About all that is publicly known is that an asylum seeker who arrived in England in 2020 told police, upon being suspected of carrying out a terror attack, that he had done it for “Palestine.”
