Thousands of licensed doormen and security guards pose a potential risk to public safety because they cannot account for their past, damning figures obtained from the government regulator reveal.
Critical infrastructure and banks could be at risk from accredited private security personnel working secretly for terrorists and organised crime, say industry sources.
The warning comes as the far right seeks to stoke a race war in the UK and seven years after the failures of the Manchester Arena bombing, which killed 22 and injured many more, was supposed to improve private security regulation.