Sunday 26 February 2017 9:20 am

The UK’s terror threat is at its worst since the 1970s, says the new terror watchdog

The UK's new terror watchdog has said we're facing the worst threat since the IRA was at its peak in the 1970s.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Max Hill said Isis is planning "indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians" in cities across the UK.

"In terms of the threat that’s represented, I think the intensity and the potential frequency of serious plot planning – with a view to indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians of whatever race or colour in metropolitan areas – represents an enormous on-going risk that none of us can ignore," he said.

"I think that there is undoubtedly significant ongoing risk which is at least as great as the threat to London in the Seventies when the IRA were active on the mainland. At the time Britain was facing a concerted terrorist campaign from Irish republicans that saw pubs, train stations and Parliament repeatedly targeted in bomb attacks."

Hill, one of the UK's leading terrorism prosecutors, was appointed to the role last week, taking over from David Anderson.

He isn't the first senior figure to warn of the gravity of the threat against the UK.

Last year then-Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, who will be replaced shortly by Cressida Dick, said a UK terror attack was a case of "when, not if".

"Our threat level has been at severe for two years – it remains there," he said.

"I feel and understand that fear and as the police officer in charge of preventing such an attack know that you want me to reassure you. I am afraid I cannot do that entirely."

However, he added there are "lots of things working in our favour".

"The relationship between MI5, MI6 and the police is a world-beater. It has given us an advantage in intelligence and ultimately foiling plots. My team at Scotland Yard co-ordinate the national police effort across the country, working with specialist hubs in other regions. In short we have a professional, joined up and national network of intelligence-led investigations."