Belfast knife attack disorder 'destabilising', says terror adviser

It is legitimate to discuss the impact of migration on the UK's national security after disorder that followed a knife attack in Belfast, the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has said.

Jonathan Hall KC made the comments after it emerged a Sudanese man, 30, who was charged with attempted murder, had entered the UK in 2023 and was given refugee status.

He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was "absolutely legitimate to talk about immigration in the context of national security".

"If you look at state threats and people who have been willing to act as proxies or carry out attacks on behalf of Iran... I'm interested in the question of whether or not foreign nationality, particularly recent migrants, is becoming more relevant to the overall national security picture," he said.

Hall said although it does not appear the Belfast attack was a national security incident, "it has had huge ramifications... not least for people who happen to be black and brown who appear to have been driven out their houses, so it's extraordinarily destabilising".

The barrister said there has also not been a response to Donald Trump's National Security Strategy , released in November, which accused Europe's migration policies of "transforming the continent and creating strife". No European leaders have publicly accepted his assertion.

Trump has warned many countries in Europe "will not be viable countries any longer" if they keep on the way they are going, adding: "What they're doing with immigration is a disaster."

Hall said: "Now you may not have agreed with the language, but I think it does raise the question if certain countries are more likely either to commit very serious offences, or particular offences, or to get involved with state threat activity."