The likes of Russia ‘will keep attacking us’ warned MI5’s Ken McCallum (Picture: Contributor/Getty Images) (Picture: PA)

Britain is bracing for ‘very real’ threats posed by hostile countries, MI5 has warned.

There has been at least 10 such potential threats recorded by the agency so far this year – with 37 late-stage terror attack plots foiled since 2017.

The UK is in a contest with ‘adversaries who have massive scale and are not squeamish about the tactics they deploy’, MI5 director general Ken McCallum has said.

In a speech from the security agency’s Thames House headquarters in London, he explained how Iran has ‘ambitions’ to kidnap or kill Britons it sees as ‘enemies of the regime.

The Middle East country now ‘projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services’.

Drawing on a football analogy to hammer home his concerns, Mr McCallum also referenced Russia, saying the Kremlin ‘thinks nothing of throwing an elbow in the face, and routinely cheats to get its way.’

‘They will keep attacking us’, he warned.

Meanwhile Chinese authorities are said to be ‘trying to re-write the rulebook, to buy the league, to recruit our coaching staff to work for them’.

MI5 says Iran has ‘ambitions’ to kidnap or kill Brits deemed ‘enemies of the regime’ (Picture: AFP)

Mr McCallum continued: ‘We’re alive to the risk of these teams loaning players to each other, amplifying their strengths.

‘At its [Iran’s] sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.

‘We have seen at least 10 such potential threats since January alone. We work at pace with domestic and international partners to disrupt this completely unacceptable activity.’

Discussing MI5’s work as a whole, Mr McCallum said getting ahead of terror plots was ‘still the first thing the British public expect of us’, as he told how so-called lone wolf terrorists were ‘fiendishly hard to detect and disrupt’.

Hostile states, such as Russia, ‘will keep attacking us’ say MI5 (Picture: Contributor/Getty Images)

Security services are seeing growing attempts by right-wing extremists to ‘acquire weapons’, particularly firearms, ‘well in advance of any specific targeting intent developing’, Mr McCallum said.

There are also growing numbers of right-wing extremist ‘influencers’ which ‘fuel grievances and amplify conspiracy theories.’

Terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology still accounts for about three-quarters of MI5’s terrorist caseload, Mr McCallum added.

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There are also growing numbers of right-wing extremist ‘influencers’ which ‘fuel grievances and amplify conspiracy theories.’