MI5 chief: We've got terrorism in the UK under control, for the moment

The number of terror plots targeting the UK has dropped over the past 18 months and the threat must no longer be ‘hyped up’, the head of MI5 said last night.

In the first ever interview with a serving head of the Security Service, Jonathan Evans warned there was no room for complacency in the fight against Islamist extremism.

But he claimed a series of high-profile convictions in the courts has had ‘a chilling effect’ on would-be terrorists. ‘They are keeping their heads down,’ he said.