Spies are at ‘breaking point’ trying to keep tabs on thousands of newly radicalised bedroom fanatics

BRITAIN’S spies are at “breaking point” trying to keep tabs on thousands of newly radicalised bedroom fanatics amid stretched budgets, The Sun can reveal.

A high level security source says terror watch lists are currently at record levels of potential lone wolf killers - with MI5 “saturated” with new red flags.

The top insider added security agencies were the “busiest they had ever been” in recent months as Britain unlocked from Covid.

Security experts say Britain faces a major threat from the rise in ‘Nike’ terrorists - nicknamed because they “just do it” with little warning and are almost impossible to track.

The senior insider chillingly warned: “There is nothing we can do to stop someone walking into a shop and buying a knife.”

The police and security services are also battling a rise in would-be attackers with mental health conditions: with a handful hauled off public transport with knives and machetes in recent months.

In the wake of the Manchester bombing in 2017, it was revealed MI5 were conducting 500 active investigations, with another 3,000 “subjects of interest” - but more than 20,000 on file.

But now those figures are said to have soared this year, and made worse by lockdown.

They warned that despite a rise in threats from the far-right, Islamic fundamentalists remain the biggest threat to the nation.

Jihadists are the seen to be most “adept” at changing the way they operate online to sweep up the most vulnerable young people, who’ve sat at home in their bedrooms watching their bile spewing videos.

It comes as the alleged killer of Southend West MP, Sir David Amess had been referred to anti-terror scheme Prevent, but was never made a “subject of interest” by MI5.

Dr. Dan Lomas, Lecturer in Intelligence & Security Studies at Brunel University, says: “What we’re seeing is a perfect storm.”

“It really comes at little surprise that budgets and staffing are stretched at a time when the number of potential targets remain the same or increasing.

“Staffing and numbers appear to be increasing, but so are the threats. And they’re more varied and difficult to predict than ever.

“Someone who might not seem to pose a risk today, might suddenly decide to carry out an isolated attack with little warning tomorrow.

“In complex plots, including numerous people, it can be easier to pick up chatter that results in arrests.

“But for people who might decide to pick up a sharp object and carry out an attack it’s much harder because the chatter is often not there to pick up.”

Two years ago then Security minister Ben Wallace warned more investment was needed so spooks could keep an eye on would-be attackers.

He warned in 2019: “I can tell you, we are at stretch. We’re not at over-stretch but we’re at stretch."

Presciently he added: “We are going to need to fund more of our intelligence services and our police. Security at home and abroad doesn’t come cheap and we are going to have to invest in that and continue."

“In this game you are also trying to see what’s over the horizon. For us to continue to keep pace, we’re going to have to grow with it. If we don’t invest, then I think we won’t keep pace.”

Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, warns: “Despite two decades of jihadist terrorism, we have failed to drain the swamp of the extremist preachers frequently responsible for radicalisation.

“The social media giants have ignored their responsibilities to clamp down on hate speech, but there has also been a lack of will nationally to take on the problem at source by tackling extremism within U.K. communities, and this is reflected in the ever-increasing numbers on this watch list”