United Kingdom and Ireland
United Kingdom and IrelandiStock

Incoming director-general of the UK's M15 national security network, Ken McCallum, on Wednesday made his first remarks to the public since taking over office on March 31 of this year, as reported by Breitbart News. McCallum named radical Islam as the biggest single threat facing the nation.

“Islamist extremist terrorism…by volume remains our largest threat," said the new director. "It is still the case that tens of thousands of individuals are committed to this ideology – and we must continually scan for the smaller numbers within that large group who at any given moment might be mobilizing towards attacks."

While naming China and Russia, along with right-wing extremists and Northern Ireland among a "nasty mix" of threats facing the UK, McCallum made it clear radical Islam was the biggest cause for concern. "Having someone ‘on our radar’ is not the same as having them under detailed real-time scrutiny. Difficult judgements of prioritization and risk must be made,” he stated.

Referring to the threat of right-wing terror, McCallum asserted that, "this threat is not, today, on the same scale as Islamist extremist terrorism." According to the Breitbart report, the new MK15 chief failed to mention radical leftist organizations such as Antifa and BLM amongst the country's security threats.