UK must have ‘full control of borders’, Phillips warns

Chris Phillips, former head of the Home Office’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, has declared that Britain needs full control of its borders in order to ensure protection from a foreign terror threat. The comment comes as think tank the Henry Jackson Society prepares to publish its report confirming that over 70 per cent of the 258 Islamic terrorists convicted in Britain since 1999 were British citizens. The figures found that of that number, 60 per cent had been born and raised in the UK. Hannah Stuart, author of the report, said: "What the data is showing us is that there have been fewer people who appear to have come to the UK to set up networks, which is what happened in the late 1990s. Now the threat seems to be from those who have lived here and become radicalised.” Commenting on the findings, Phillips who is currently head of counter-terror consultancy, International Protect and Prepare Security Office, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that 70 per cent of those convicted are UK citizens but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Conviction requires a very high threshold. There are more than 2,000 Britons on the radar of our intelligence services. More than 500 have returned from Syria. “It is nonsense to suggest that pulling out of the EU will negatively impact on this threat. Yes, there may be some EUsharing initiatives that will go but their significance to us is minor, with the threat overplayed.” He added: “Regaining control of our borders will allow us to make better decisions about who we allow in. Right now there is nothing we can do to stop a French person who is radicalised from entering the UK. Or a German. The argument that the French police and British police wouldn’t talk to each other about terrorism issues after Brexit is, quite frankly, ridiculous.”