Parliament warns UK police, armed forces at risk of extreme right-wing recruitment

The British Parliament warned in a new report that the United Kingdom’s police and armed forces are at risk for recruitment by extreme right-wing terrorist groups.

The Intelligence and Security Committee’s annual report, released on Tuesday, said there is a risk of insider threats in both the police force and the military, given right-wing extremists’ interest in “military culture, weaponry and the Armed Forces or law enforcement organisations.”

The report specifically pointed to the risks created by the military’s lack of clear direction about organizational membership and issues in the police vetting processes, particularly a lack of thorough background checks.

The parliamentary committee highlighted the case of 22-year-old Benjamin Hannam, a former Metropolitan police officer in London who was convicted in April 2021 of membership in National Action, a far-right, neo-Nazi group.

The report comes after German police arrested 25 individuals last week in a suspected coup attempt. The arrested individuals, which included several current and former soldiers and police officers, allegedly sought to overthrow the German government and replace Chancellor Olaf Scholz as head of state with 71-year-old aristocrat descended from German nobility.

The German plot triggered comparisons to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in the U.S., which also spurred warnings of the potential for insider threats and extremist recruitment in America’s military.