Terror threats confronting Britain are putting our security services under severe strain

ISIS, al-Qaeda, Russia, Iran and the UK’s white nationalist Far Right: the confronting Britain are putting our security services under severe strain.

MI5 head Ken McCallum’s frank assessment of the dangers we face, in a rare public address, shows how war in the Middle East and threatens to spill over on to our streets.

The keys to keeping Britain safe without turning it into a police state, where everyday life is frustrated by bag checks and searches, are preventing radicalisation and foiling plots before they are executed.

McCallum notably did not include , Beijing posing economic and human rights challenges abroad rather than terror threats.

Perhaps most worrying may be the growing number of under-18s sucked into the warped world of political violence. Winning back the hearts and minds of the nation’s youth will be the new frontline in the battle against terror.

Not so Clever

The Tories seem to be heading back to the future when the frontrunner to be their next leader is a former Home and Foreign Secretary who served Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

James Cleverly, for it is he, leapt ahead of his rivals by making Tory members and MPs feel good about themselves, but a delusional group hug is no substitute for a long, hard analysis to determine what the party stands for and why voters would ever trust them again.

The contest lacks an A-lister, with only right-wingers Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch now battling each other to be on the ballot paper alongside Cleverly when party members pick their sixth leader in eight years.

Sadly for them, there’s no guarantee the winner will still be in place at the next election.

Good for Roo

Coleen Rooney beat Rebekah Vardy yet again when a judge ruled that her legal costs would not be slashed.

The £1.8million bill Vardy now faces is the financial equivalent of relegation in football.