'ISIS poses a greater threat to Britain than we have known before': British Prime Minister warns

A terror attack on the UK is now 'highly likely', David Cameron said today.

The Prime Minister's remarks came after the official threat level was raised from substantial to severe - the second highest - amid growing fears over the number of extremists returning to the UK from Iraq and Syria.

Mr Cameron said ISIS now posed a 'greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before'. The PM said terrorism was now 'the most important issue facing this country today'.

He also announced that new laws will be passed to make it easier to remove extremists' passports if there are concerns they will travel to the Middle East to join ISIS.

The Prime Minister's remarks came after the Home Secretary Theresa May stressed that there is no information to suggest an attack is imminent, but warned: ‘We face a real and serious threat in the UK from international terrorism.'

 

Mr Cameron said ISIS was more dangerous than the Taliban and al Qaeda. He said: ‘In Afghanistan the Taliban were prepared to play host to al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation.

'With IS (ISIS) we are facing a terrorist organisation not being hosted in a country but seeking to establish and then violently expand its own terrorist state.

‘With designs on expanding to Jordan, Lebanon, right up to the Turkish border, we could be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a Nato member.’

 

He said the gruesome murder of US journalist James Foley was ‘clear evidence - not that any more was needed - that this is not some far off (problem), thousands of miles away, that we can ignore’.

Mr Cameron added: ‘What we are facing in Iraq now with ISIL (also known as ISIS) is a greater threat to our security than we have seen before.’

Although he stressed that the Government had already taken steps to counter the threat of jihadists returning to Britain to commit atrocities, he said it had become clear that there was still a need to fill ‘gaps in our armoury’.

He will be making a statement to Parliament on Monday giving details, but revealed the Government would introduce new laws to make it easier to remove extremists' passports.