Council leader dismisses report naming Portsmouth as '˜terrorist hub'

Portsmouth City Council's leader has described a report which named Portsmouth as a terrorist '˜recruitment hub' as '˜wildly inaccurate'.

By The Newsroom

Published 18th Nov 2016, 13:17 BST

Updated 21st Nov 2016, 13:28 BST

The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), based in the US, named in the city in its report as one of the most likely areas in the world for jihadi fighters to come from.

It claimed extremist groups are likely to network in areas with large immigrant communities ‘where they identify high numbers of potential recruits who are potentially under social-economic stress.’

Speaking about the report Councillor Donna Jones said: ‘I think the information in the report is incorrect.

‘We do not have any issue with terrorist cells and I want to reassure Portsmouth residents about this.’

Cllr Jones added that in comparison to other UK cities the number of fighters coming from Portsmouth was ‘very small’, and that the city had been named in the report because of previous high profile cases in the city.