UK under threat by far-right groups, says ex-counter-terror chief
A British former police counter-terrorism chief has sounded the alarm in the UK about the growing threat posed by domestic rightwing terrorists.
“We have a domestic terrorist group, it’s rightwing, it’s neo-Nazi, it’s proudly white supremacist, portraying a violent and wicked ideology,” Mark Rowley, the former head of the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism unit told media on Saturday.
The counter-terrorism expert, who led the Met’s anti-terrorism unit between 2014 and 2018, said neo-Nazi organizations like National Action followed “a strategy for a terrorist group” with online materials advising on how to sow tension and discord in communities and evade police surveillance.
Rowley said the UK has not yet “woken up” to the threat set forth by such groups.
“If we sleepwalk into it… we give them more scope to get stronger. They’re repackaging their aggressive intolerance … and attaching it to mainstream political debate.”
He urged politicians, the media and communities not to underestimate the threat of far-right groups such as National Action.
Rowley had previously voiced concern about domestic rightwing terrorist groups in February.
He said that the UK faced a significant threat from far-right terrorism and said four plots by right-wing extremists had been foiled in 2017 alone.
The now banned National Action was a neo-Nazi organization which pursued what it projected to be an imminent and inevitable race war.
The rightwing organization was banned in 2016 after it approved the murder of Jo Cox, a female Member of Parliament, who was killed in a frenzied street attack by a Nazi-obsessed loner.
National Action was the first rightwing group to be outlawed in Britain since World War Two.
UK's Sunak vows to start migrant flights to Rwanda
US, UK impose new sanctions on Iran over retaliation against Israel
Former minister says UK should consider sending troops to Ukraine
VIDEO | Iran marks defeat of US military operation in Tabas Desert
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
US troopers crack down on pro-Palestinian protests at University of Texas
VIDEO | German warship departs Red Sea as EU 'naval mission' fails
VIDEO | Palestinians inspect rubble of destroyed building in Rafah
Yemeni forces strike US, Israeli vessels in fresh pro-Palestinian operations
‘Say no to Biden’: US college being pressed not to endorse genocide
VIDEO | UN: Alarming food insecurity crisis grips Afghanistan
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
