More extremists are becoming terrorism threats because hate preachers are “more empowered and more vocal”, a top counter-terrorism police officer has revealed.

Islamist clerics and far-Right thugs are exploiting Britain’s “polarised communities” to poison the minds of vulnerable people online, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing, warned.

And he warned some extremists are becoming so influential people are not willing to speak out against them.

This creates the growing risk that jihadis and far-Right lunatics fantasising about attacks could exploit the “permissive” environment to carry out an atrocity.

AC Taylor told the Daily Express: “We are seeing, not just within counter-terrorism policing, but policing more broadly, far more polarised communities.

“And what that means is that those voices that would have once been at the extremes are being normalised.

“They're becoming more empowered, more vocal, and that is influencing more people.

“Therefore, the challenge of those extreme views becomes greater.

“That in turn results in a more permissive environment where it becomes more acceptable to voice those views or behave in a way that normalises some of that behaviour.

“Therefore, things that wouldn't have happened 10 years ago are now happening.”

Mr Taylor pointed to the surge in anti-Semitism and recent terror attacks targeting Jewish people.

He said: “At the moment we are seeing a much more acute threat to the Jewish community. We've seen that play out in attacks. We've seen it in this very significant increase in anti-Semitism.

“Anti-Semitism has never gone away. It’s often underreported. But the volume per population is significantly higher than any other religious group.

“So that would suggest, both online and in public narratives, that there has either been an increase in anti-Semitism or it has become normalised to be able to say it out loud.

“It’s those sorts of things that then lead to different behaviours within those communities.”

Counter-terrorism detectives are watching extremists consume a toxic cocktail of wars around the globe online and social media algorithms pushing more violent and radical content to them.

Assistant Commissioner Taylor told this newspaper: “If I was an individual with a mindset, 10 years ago I'd have thought okay I believe in thing A, B, C or D.

“But I'm not going to go and do something.

“When you move that into a more permissive environment, that might be enough to go – actually it's probably okay now and therefore you increase the risk.

“If you then overlay that with social media, and if I have a mindset, I can access things online that five/ten years ago I'd never have been able to find.

“And once you then start accessing it, the algorithms then push more and more of that to you, which amplifies your thinking, providing more of that material, so your behaviour snowballs far more quickly.”

Counter-terrorism detectives are anticipating over 10,000 referrals to the Government’s deradicalisation programme, Prevent.

And officers are seeing a sharp increase in potential extremists with no clear ideology.

They are consuming jihadi propaganda and reading extreme right-wing manuals, whilst studying mass casualty events such as school shootings.

And the top terror detective admitted there is a “very significant” risk that people spending too much time online are being sucked into extremism.

He added: “There is no one silver bullet to this to resolve it.

“It's a system-wide response that's required. It's a societal response that is required. And then I think social media platforms and other platforms have more of a moral responsibility to address some of the material that's on their site that currently isn't being removed.

“In relation to geopolitical events around the globe, there is no question that it has an impact in the UK. You know, we monitor very closely what goes on.

“It would be really naive to say that the current conflict in the Middle East isn't having any impact in the UK.

“Of course, it does. But that's no different to Ukraine. It's no different to other conflicts around the world.

“You generally find when there is conflict, there is an uptick in either narrative or threat that we see here.

“Which is why it's so important that we are engaged internationally with international partners, so we can properly understand what's going on and the way in which that terrorist threat then plays out will ebb and flow depending on the global situation at the time.”

The terror threat level has been raised to "severe" following the Golders Green terror attack.

The Home Office said another atrocity is "highly likely" after two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, North London yesterday.

Officials said the threat from lone wolf extremists and small groups of Islamist fanatics and extreme-right thugs has intensified.

Security chiefs said the bombshell move "comes against a backdrop" of rising threats from Iran, Russia and China.