The director general expressed his ‘very deepest sympathies’ but said the threat of another attack remained ‘substantial’
13:00, 16 Oct 2025Updated 13:05, 16 Oct 2025
Director General of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum, delivers the annual Director General’s Speech at Thames House(Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
The boss of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum today expressed his ‘deepest sympathies’ following the devastating Manchester synagogue attack as he warned the threat of another terror attack in the UK remained ‘substantial’.
The director general of the spy agency, speaking at his annual speech to outline the threat from terror groups and hostile states, told reporters: “Just two weeks ago at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester, we saw horrific violence against a community at prayer on the holiest day in the Jewish faith. I offer my deepest sympathies to those bereaved, injured and affected by this sickening act of terror.”
Adrian Daulby, 53, and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz, both from Crumpsall, died during the attack, which unfolded on Yom Kippur, the most holy day in the Jewish calendar.
Terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie drove to Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, where he drove the vehicle into a man and stabbed a man to death. The attacker was later shot dead.
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At his annual ‘threat assessment’ speech in London today, Sir Ken McCallum revealed his agency had recorded a 35 per cent increase in the number of individuals under investigation in the last year compared to the year before.
He also said MI5 had ‘tracked more than 20 potentially-lethal Iran-back plots’ this year. Since 2020, the agency had ‘disrupted’ 19 ‘late stage’ attack plots, he said.
Jihad Al-Shamie(Image: MEN MEDIA)
And a fifth of the 232 terrorism arrests last year were children, Sir Ken told the briefing.
Pressed further on the attacks in north Manchester and what assurances he could give Jewish communities, Sir Ken again expressed his ‘deepest sympathies’ to those affected.
But he issued a chilling warning. He said: “The overall terrorist threat level for the United Kingdom set independently by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre currently sits at ‘substantial’.
Director General of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum(Image: PA Wire)
“That already means an attack is likely. So every day… my teams working with our colleagues on the police are alert to the possibility of a terror attack of some form’.
He said he would not ‘unpack’ the details or the potential targets. Sir Ken added: “But sadly The Jewish community tends to receive more than its share of interest on the part of extremists of various flavours.”
Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
He referenced the Iranian state and continued: “Because of that the long-standing sad truth is that there are pretty well-developed arrangements principally the responsibility of my colleagues in the police on the basis of advice from MI5 and others to provide proportionate, sensible precautions in the interests of making sure that any particular target that may be of more interest than others are proportionately and sensibly protected.”
Sir Ken, when asked about the ‘radicalising influence’ of events in Gaza, said: “Events in the middle east are of course what spins around in the minds of would-be attackers.”