More than 1,000 extremists 'capable of attacks' monitored in Britain, UK counter-terror chief warns
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor revealed 19 'late-stage' terror attacks have been thwarted in the last five years
More than 1,000 extremists capable of committing a terror attack on British soil are being monitored by the security services as the UK reaches unprecedented levels of radicalisation.
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The warning from the UK’s Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, comes as the authorities struggle to cope with more than 10,000 referrals to the Government’s deradicalisation programme Prevent, which critics claim is “not fit for purpose”.
In an exclusive interview with LBC and The Crime Agents podcast, Assistant Commissioner Taylor accused social media tech bosses, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to combat radicalisation on their platforms.
And the counter terror chief told how ISIS are growing in influence once again, and are encouraging lone wolf attacks in the West.
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The terror group was largely dismantled after a major operation by coalition forces, ending with its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being killed in an operation in Syria in 2019.
Asst Commissioner Taylor says the threat from ISIS has never gone away, but there has been a significant increase in activity from the terror group, resulting in two ISIS-inspired attacks at the end of 2025 - the Manchester Synagogue attack in October, and the Bondi Beach massacre in Sydney last month.
He said: “The threat that we saw 20 years ago has never gone away. It kind of ebbs and flows. In terms of capabilities overseas, the influence to get things done abroad, we've definitely seen an uptick in some of that.
“There's no question that their (ISIS) ambition has always been to attack the West. We know that their ambitions have grown and we are seeing people who are still intent on doing that sort of activity. It just has never gone away.
“I think at the moment we are probably in one of those more upward trajectories but the more activity we do, potentially we can disrupt that.”
LBC and The Crime Agents podcast were given exclusive access to the Counter Terror Operations Centre (CTOC), based in a secret location, and are the first journalists to be allowed into the operation room, where CTP, MI5, MI6, GCHQ and Special Forces monitor terror threats and respond to attacks.
In an extended exclusive interview, Asst Commissioner Taylor also told how:
- There has been a sharp rise in anti-semitism in the UK.
- He is keeping a “close eye” on people coming in on small boats.
- Unprecedented levels of young people are being radicalised online.
- Social media bosses “need to do more” to stop extremism on their platforms.
- How the government’s deradicalisation programme, Prevent, needs to modernise to cope with a huge rise in referrals.
Prevent reported a 27 per cent rise in referrals in 2025 - the highest since records began. Amnesty International says the Government’s deradicalisation strategy is a “dangerously broken system”.
Asst Commissioner Taylor added: “I don't think Prevent has got the capacity to deal with the volume of things that are going through it now.
“Also, the complexity of what we're dealing with is changing, so the skills we need, the interventions that we need are changing. So, I do absolutely agree we need to look at Prevent, and we need to make sure that it is as modern and as effective as it can be.
“But if you look at our cohort of referrals, over 50% now don't have an ideology.
“Prevent was set up to deal predominantly with Islamist ideologies and also now looks at extreme right wing. If you don't have an ideology or you've got mixed ideologies, Prevent is not the right place for you. And that's one of the challenges.”
There are more than 800 live investigations ongoing between Counter Terrorism Police and MI5, which include more than 1,000 extremists classed as active threats who are currently being monitored.
The terror chief says online radicalisation is one of the biggest challenges for the security services, and says tech bosses, including Elon Musk, owner of X, and Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Meta, are not doing enough to combat extremism on their platforms.
“They (Musk and Zuckerberg) are not doing even close to enough,” he said.
“It comes down to what their moral perspective is, how they’re running their business.
I would put huge pressure on tech bosses to manage this more effectively. And we need to. But we also need laws to do this.”
The Home Secretary told LBC this morning: “The picture is very very challenging.
“We have world class counter-terror policing in this country.
“It’s a really dangerous picture. We have excellent people working in this area keeping us safe every day.”
X & Meta have also been contacted for comment.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Asst Commissioner Laurence Taylor on The Crime Agents podcast on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts.