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The United Kingdom’s Home Office announced on Thursday that it has escalated the nation’s terrorism threat level to “severe.” This is the second-highest status in the country’s five-level alert system and follows the stabbing of two Jewish men after a series of arson incidents targeting Jewish locations.
This “severe” level of alert indicates that another attack is “highly likely” within the next six months. The threat level had previously been “substantial,” meaning an attack was “likely,” since February 2022.
In response to these dangers, the government plans to introduce new legislation aimed at countering threats posed by state-sponsored actors. This move comes amid concerns that countries like Iran are utilizing criminal proxies to further their aims.
Government officials intend to expedite legislation that would allow for the prosecution of individuals acting as proxies for state-sponsored groups, treating them similarly to spies working for foreign intelligence agencies.
Authorities in Britain, including police and security experts, have raised alarms about Iran’s increasing use of criminal proxies for hostile activities. They have noted that Russia and China are employing similar tactics.
A pro-Iranian government group has claimed responsibility for some recent attacks.
the interior ministry announced the country’s terrorism threat level had been raised to “severe”, the second highest in the five-tier system and meaning another attack “is highly likely in the next six months”.
In March, two men were charged under the UK’s existing National Security Act with being tasked by Iran to carry out hostile surveillance, and in 2025 three men were convicted of an arson attack on Ukraine-linked businesses.
Officials say Moscow turned to criminals or those with existing grievances following the expulsion of Russian spies over the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.
Such accusations have been rejected by Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, which say they are politically motivated.
Thursday’s announcement of new powers, and additional funding for security, follows criticism of Britain from Jewish community leaders and the Israeli government after a spate of recent attacks, mostly arson, on Jewish targets in London.
The recent incidents are part of a rising number of antisemitic attacks in the UK and worldwide since the October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Jewish leaders in the UK have said regular, large marches in support of Gaza have created a more hostile environment in the capital, where they say anti-Semitism is increasingly common.
In October 2025, two people were killed after an attack at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester.
A week later, two men went on trial over a plot to kill hundreds in a gun rampage, inspired by the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, against the Jewish community.
They were found guilty in December, just more than a week after a mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall, told the BBC the British attacks had become “the biggest national security emergency” since 2017, when there was a string of high-profile attacks.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said $47 million in additional funding would pay for more protective security for the country’s synagogues, schools, places of worship and community centres, boosting police numbers in areas with a large Jewish community.
“We are seeing a huge increase in antisemitism, and that’s why the government’s work on education and stamping out antisemitism across other parts of the public sector is also an incredibly important part of this picture,” Mahmood said.
She did not say the legislation would be used against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but told Sky News: “I expect to be making decisions in the very near future about the groups that we will be designating as state-linked.”
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