MI5 Boss: Foreign Agents Can’t Be Punished Due to Outdated Laws

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum gives his annual threat update at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London, on July 14, 2021. Yui Mok/PA

It’s frustrating that British law currently doesn’t criminalise being a covert foreign agent, the UK’s spymaster said on Friday.

Ken McCallum, director-general of the Security Service, also known as MI5, said the agency is effectively “operating with one hand behind our back on state threats.”