Britain faces a terror threat not seen since the IRA bombings of the 1970s, the new watchdog warned.

Max Hill QC, of London’s Red Lion Chambers, spoke to The Telegraph after being appointed as the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws. He took over the role from David Anderson QC who held the post since 2011.

He told the newspaper that the so-called Islamic State was planning ‘indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians of whatever race or colour’ in UK cities, presenting a significant ongoing risk ‘at least as great as the threat to London in the 1970s when the IRA were active on the mainland’.