Patel confirms UK national terrorism threat reduced

Home Secretary Priti Patel has confirmed that the UK's national terrorism threat level has been reduced from severe to substantial, meaning that the chances of an attack happening is ‘likely’, rather than ‘highly likely’.

Announcing the move in a written ministerial statement, the Home Secretary said that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre judges that ‘the current nature and scale of the UK terrorist threat is consistent with the level of threat seen prior to the attacks’ in October and November 2021.

This is in reference to the stabbing of Conservative MP Sir David Amess at his constituency surgery in Essex and an explosion outside a hospital in Liverpool which police declared a terror incident.

Patel said: "Any reduction in the threat level is positive but it must never make us complacent. Terrorism remains one of the most direct and immediate risks to our national security. The public should remain alert, but not alarmed, and report any concerns they may have to the police."