UK: number of far-right terrorists in prisons triples as arrests hit new record

Islamists make up the majority of terrorist prisoners and suspects arrested in Britain. The number of far-right terrorists imprisoned in Britain has more than tripled in a year, new statistics reveal.

There were 29 people in custody by the end of March, up from nine the previous year.

Islamist extremists make up the majority of 228 people imprisoned for terror offences in the UK, at 82 per cent of the total, followed by 13 per cent far-right and 6 per cent driven by other ideologies including those linked to Northern Ireland.

“There have been steady increases in recent years in the number of terrorist prisoners across all the types of ideologies covered,” a Home Office bulletin said.

“The proportion of prisoners holding far-right ideologies has increased steadily over the past three years.”

The number of terror-related arrests rose by 17 per cent to hit a new record of 441 in the 12 months to April, which saw large-scale police operations in response to the attacks at Manchester Arena, London Bridge, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green.

British security services have been thwarting attack plots at the rate of one every month since the Westminster attack in March 2017, the head of MI5 revealed.

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