Guardian News and Media/London
George Osborne has pledged to give MI5 and MI6 whatever resources they need to allow them to maintain their “heroic job” in protecting the British people from terrorist threats at home and abroad.
Speaking after the director general of MI5 called for new powers in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the chancellor endorsed Andrew Parker’s view that the fight against terrorism is Britain’s main national priority.
Osborne told BBC Breakfast on Friday: “My commitment is very clear. This is the national priority. We will put the resources in. Whatever the security services need they will get because they do a heroic job on our behalf.”
Parker had warned of a dangerous imbalance between increasing numbers of terrorist plots against the UK and a fall in the capabilities of intelligence services to spy on communications.
He described the Paris attack as “a terrible reminder of the intentions of those who wish us harm” and said he had spoken to his French counterparts to offer help.
Osborne said the government had recently set aside an extra £100mn to allow the intelligence agencies to monitor “self-starter” terrorists travelling to Iraq and Syria.
“In the last few weeks we have put extra money – over £100mn – into specifically monitoring people going to conflicts in Syria and Iraq, these self-starting terrorists who get their ideas off the internet and then go and want to perpetrate horrendous crimes,” he told the BBC.
“So we are putting a huge effort in. As the director general of MI5 has said, that is the threat we face and we face a threat from more complex plots. So we have got to be vigilant, we have got to have the resources there.”
The chancellor said the agencies were “absolutely in the front line with the police at dealing with this threat. They will get the support they need and indeed in the last few weeks they have got that support.”
His remarks focused on the financial support the government will provide for Britain’s three intelligence agencies, the domestic agency, MI5, the overseas Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and the UK’s GCHQ eavesdropping centre. But he also made clear his strong political support for MI5.
Speaking to an invited audience at MI5 headquarters on Thursday, Parker said the threat level to Britain had worsened and extremist groups in Syria and Iraq were directly trying to orchestrate attacks on the UK. Such an attack was highly likely and MI5 could not guarantee it would be able to stop it, he said.
“Strikingly, working with our partners, we have stopped three UK terrorist plots in recent months alone,” he said. “Deaths would certainly have resulted otherwise. Although we and our partners try our utmost, we know that we cannot hope to stop everything.”
