The UK remains in the top 30 countries affected by terrorism, according to an international index.

It is 28 out of 163 nations on the list, which measures the impact of terror over the last five years.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) found far-right extremism is increasing in the West, with the number arrested in Europe for such offences rising for a third year in a row.

There were also nearly three times as many counter-terror operations related to ring-wing extremism compared with the two previous years.

Official figures from the UK show in the year to the end of June 2019, 76 of 266 terror arrests (about 29%) were linked to the far right. The year before it was 76 of 354 (22%).

Around 10% of current police counter-terror probes in the UK are linked to the far right, compared with around 6% in 2017/18.

In January, the country’s counter-terror chief, Neil Basu, said 14 Islamist-inspired attacks had been prevented and four from the far right.

The GTI defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation”.,

Steve Killelea, head of the Institute for Economics and Peace – which publishes the GTI, said there were 95 incidents within that definition in the UK in 2018.

The vast majority were in Northern Ireland.

Afghanistan was ranked top of the terrorism index, with the country’s Taliban said to be behind most terror deaths in 2018.

It is the first time since 2003 that Iraq has not been top.

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