MI5 Director General and Head of CT Policing give joint interview for podcast

Published date: 21 May 2021

Times Radio have broadcast a joint interview with MI5 Director General Ken McCallum and Neil Basu, the head of Counter-Terrorism Policing in the UK. This is the first time that the Director General of MI5 and the head of Counter-Terrorism Policing have given a joint interview together.

In a wide-ranging conversation with host Matt Chorley, Ken and Neil discussed their backgrounds, career histories and the current threats the UK is facing from Islamist and Right Wing Terrorism, Hostile States and Northern Irish Related Terrorism. They also explored the incredibly close working relationship between MI5 and Counter-Terrorism Policing, and the establishment of the Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre (CTOC), which will further deepen the partnership. They reflected on the role of technology in our mission to keep the country safe, and on the duty that social media companies have to design systems which do not create safe spaces for terrorists and sexual offenders. 

The full interview will be available to listen to on the Times’ Red Box podcast, which is free to download through any podcast site.