Britain’s top counter-terrorism policeman has revealed multiple advanced terrorist plots and even potential school shootings have been stopped recently, and reportedly said influencer Andrew Tate’s alleged advocacy of “violent misogyny” is a “concern”.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, described as Britain’s head of counter-terrorism policing by the press, has revealed that eight “late stage” terror plots were thwarted in 2022 — the first year since 2022 to see no terrorist killing in the country — describing several “close calls” as “goal-line saves” in comments quoted by The Telegraph.
Speaking at a briefing at Scotland Yard, as the headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Pollice is known, Jukes also revealed that the terrorism hotline has had hundreds of tip-offs about potential school attacks, responding in the affirmative when The Telegraph asked if they had intervened to stop mass shootings.
“Yes, absolutely. We have absolutely seen cases in which we have intervened with young people to prevent them going on to potentially carry out attacks in their school days,” he confirmed, suggesting they were being driven by “the visibility of [similar] attacks in the U.S.”
Other issues, including 15 detected schemes of the Islamic Republic of Iran to abduct or murder people since last January and Communist China operating clandestine police stations in Britain to exert control over expatriates, were also discussed — but the press bizarrely pressed Jukes on the relative non-issue of controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate, who has in the past issued comedic lifestyle advice leaning into politically incorrect and arguably sexist narratives — with the senior officer apparently indulging them.
Assistant Commissioner Jukes said he was “concerned about anyone who advocates violent misogyny.”
Something “very clear” in his work is that “men are dominant in our terrorist casework and increasingly young men and boys are present, so anything that introduces that kind of toxicity has to be a concern to counter-terrorism policing,” The Telegraph reported him as saying.
Tate, a British-American kickboxer turned online personality who has operated camgirl and gambling businesses in the corrupt European Union member-state of Romania, is currently being detained without charge while an investigation for alleged offences related to sex trafficking by local law enforcement takes place, but there does not appear to be any suggestion that he is suspected of terrorism.
The Telegraph‘s report did make some reference to the threat from so-called “incels” — involuntary celibates — harbouring resentment of women, but Tate’s links to this subculture seem tenuous at best, given he portrays himself as a virile and successful “alpha male” rather than a social reject unlucky in love, and urges fans to “join the gym [and] be entrepreneurial and hard-working members of society.”
Jukes’s briefing and the associated press questioning come as an official inquiry has warned that British anti-terrorism programmes have been pairing an exaggerated focus on threats from the “far right” encompassing even mainstream conservatives with a reluctance to give radical Islam, still by far the greatest threat to national security, the attention it requires.
