Two men have been found guilty of planning a gun attack to cause “untold harm” to the Jewish community in Manchester.

Preston Crown Court heard that Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amr Hussein, 52, had a “serious dislike” of Jewish people and had arranged to smuggle guns into Britain as part of an “ISIS-inspired plot”.

Saadaoui and Hussein were planning the attacks in collaboration with a third person.

They believed they were planning the attacks with a third person they knew as Farouq, who they believed shared their extremist views but was in fact an undercover operative.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said key instigator Walid Saadaoui had planned to carry out “possibly the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history.”

Walid Saadaoui and Hussein, of Abram, Wigan, of no fixed abode, were found guilty of preparing terrorist acts between 13 December 2023 and 9 May 2024.

A third man, 36-year-old Bilel Saadoui, Saadoui’s younger brother, has been convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts.

Walid Saadaoui’s goal was to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition to Britain.

A few months earlier, the father of two, originally from Tunisia, had paid a deposit for weapons and admitted that he had arranged for their import with a like-minded extremist in Farouk, who was a covert operative.

He told Farouk that he could freely obtain a firearm through Sweden and indicated that he was looking to bring guns from Eastern Europe. Separately he had purchased an air weapon and visited a shooting range.

Saadaoui was arrested in a hotel car park in Bolton on 8 May 2024 when he went to collect some firearms from the back of a car, which had been disarmed.

Two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition were found in the vehicle, prosecutors said.

But counter-terrorism police said they control the supply and distribution of weapons to protect the public.

Hussein and Bilel Saadaoui, who were both elsewhere, were arrested minutes later.

The trial heard that Walid Saadaoui was planning to “martyr himself” in the attack.

He had drawn up a will and left a copy to his brother, along with his belongings and thousands of pounds of cash to help his family.

Walid Saadaoui came to the attention of authorities when he used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his name, to spread Islamic extremist views.

Farooq was deployed to gain her trust online and later in person.

Walid Saadaoui used a fake account to join the Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, posting details of a “March Against Antisemitism” held in the city centre on 21 January last year, which was attended by thousands of people.

A few days later he told Farouk, “Here in Manchester, we have the largest Jewish community.

“God wishes that we would degrade and humiliate them (in the worst possible way) and hit them where it would hurt.”

He recruited fellow IS supporter Hussein, a Kuwaiti national who worked and lived in a furniture shop in Bolton, Greater Manchester, to assist him in his plans.

The pair travel to Dover, Kent, in March 2024 to investigate how to smuggle a weapon through the port without detection.

On his return, Walid Saadaoui travelled to Prestwich and Higher Broughton in North Manchester, where he carried out similar surveillance on Jewish nurseries, schools, synagogues and shops.

Bilel Saadaoui of Hindley, Wigan, was aware of his brother’s plans and sympathised with the Islamic State’s views, but he didn’t plan to join the attacks.

The trial showed WhatsApp messages between the pair that “provide a flavour of their views about the Jewish people”.

In one message, Bilel Saadaoui sent Hussein a link to a news report that a bridge collapse had killed several Jewish people and added the hashtag “Dear Palestine”.

Giving evidence, Walid Saadaoui denied that his ideology was extremist and claimed he was “playing” with Farouk.

He said that their intention was to foil the plans before they came to fruition, as their aim was to cut the weapons with an angle grinder and then alert the authorities.

Hussain told detectives that he was not part of any terrorist attack plans and said that the undercover operative’s evidence was “hypothetical.”

He also told them, “Your government, your prime minister, has sent weapons to Israel to kill our children.

“Terrorism is our religion. The Quran says terrorism is normal. We are proud; we say we are proud of terrorism.”

His barrister told jurors that Hussain had “very strong opinions” about the conflict in Gaza but that this did not make him a terrorist.

All three defendants will be sentenced on February 13.

Following the verdict, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Robert Potts said that Walid Saadau’s plan “could potentially be the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history”.

He clearly wanted a sophisticated attack with very lethal weapons to maximise Jewish deaths, as he saw this as his duty.

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crimes and Counter-Terrorism Division, said, “This was an extremely disturbing plot motivated by extremist ideology.”

He said Farooq was “deployed as a highly trained witness who ensured that their plot did not succeed and secured valuable evidence straight from the mouths of the terrorists.”

Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Jewish security charity Community Security Trust, praised police for foiling the plans, saying the plot would make people “very, very frightened.”.

He said that the conspirators simply wanted to kill the Jews.

“They don’t care who they are Jews. They don’t stop to ask these Jews what their opinion is of Israel or whether they support Manchester United or anything.

They have a clear intention to murder Jews. It’s just like the Nazis.”

The US economy picked up speed over the three months to September, as consumer spending jumped and exports increased.

The world’s largest economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.3%, up from 3.8% in the previous quarter. That was better than expected and marked the strongest growth in two years.

The report, which had been delayed by the US government shutdown, sheds light on an economy that has been buffeted by dramatic changes to trade and immigration policies, as well as persistent inflation and cuts to government spending.

But while that has led to sharp swings in some areas, such as imports and exports, the underlying economy has maintained solid momentum, outperforming many forecasts.

“This is an economy that has defied doom and gloom expectations basically since the beginning of 2022,” said Aditya Bhave, senior economist at Bank of America.

Speaking to the BBC’s Business Today programme, Mr Bhave described the economy as “very, very resilient”.

“I don’t see why that wouldn’t continue going forward,” he added.

The overall growth figure for the third quarter of the year was much stronger than expected, with most analysts expecting an annual pace of about 3.2%.

It was lifted by consumer spending that rose at an annual rate of 3.5%, compared with 2.5% in the previous quarter, despite a slowing job market, as households spent more on health care services.

Imports – which count against growth – continued to decline, reflecting the wave of taxes on shipments entering the US that President Donald Trump announced this spring.

Meanwhile exports, which had dropped sharply, bounced back, surging by 7.4%. Government spending also rebounded, driven by defence outlays.

Those gains helped overcome a slowdown in business investment, including intellectual property, and a housing market struggling under the weight of still-high interest rates, which have heightened affordability issues and supply constraints.

He holds the position of chief US economist at Oxford Economics.

Michael Pearce, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, said the economy was well positioned as it headed into 2026, as it starts to feel the boost from tax cuts and the US central bank’s recent moves to drop interest rates.

“Underlying measures are consistent with a solid expansion,” he said.

However, some analysts warned that rising prices faced by some households could make it difficult to sustain the unusually strong pace of growth seen in the most recent quarter.

Over the three months to September, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, ticked up 2.8%, compared with 2.1% in the previous quarter, according to the report.

Analysts have warned that those price increases are weighing on lower- and middle-income households, even as higher-income households continue to spend freely.

Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted that some more recent surveys and credit card data suggest that households are reining in their spending.

“The weak labour market, stagnant real incomes, and exhaustion of pandemic-era excess savings all seem to finally catch up with households,” he said.

Government proposals to tax inherited agricultural land have been weakened, with the planned threshold raised from £1m to £2.5m.

The drop follows months of protests by farmers and concern from some Labour backbenchers.

In last year’s budget, ministers said they would start imposing a 20% tax on inherited farm properties worth more than £1 million from April 2026. The government is ending the 100% tax relief that has been in place since the 1980s.

In an announcement made after MPs left Parliament for the Christmas holidays, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said, “We have listened carefully to farmers across the country, and we are making changes today to protect more ordinary family farms.”

“It is right that larger properties contribute more, while we support the farms and commercial businesses that are the backbone of Britain’s rural communities,” he said.

The National Farmers Union’s head, Tom Bradshaw, applauded the change, stating on BBC Radio 5 Live that it “protects numerous family farms from the impact of a severe storm”.

Gavin Lane, chairman of the Country Land and Business Association, said, “The Government deserves credit for recognising the flaws in the original policy and changing course.

“However, this declaration only limits the damage – it does not eliminate it completely.

“Many family businesses will have such expensive machinery and land that their value exceeds the threshold, yet they operate on such narrow profit margins that it becomes unaffordable to bear the tax burden.”

Ben Ardern, a Derbyshire farmer, expressed his approval to the BBC, calling it a positive step.

The government should exempt family farms.

He stated that the government should exempt family farms from the tax and only impose taxes on those who can afford to pay them.

“Big corporations that just hid money in land—they’re not farmers; they did it to avoid taxes. Farmers didn’t buy land to avoid taxes; we bought land to farm and grow food.”

Farmers have regularly protested outside Parliament in the 14 months since the initial proposal’s announcement.

Some Labour MPs from rural areas have also expressed concerns. In a recent parliamentary vote on the plan, a dozen backbenchers abstained and one, Marcus Campbell-Severs, voted against it.

Campbell-Severs was later suspended for voting against the government, meaning he now sits as an independent MP.

John Whitby, a Labour MP from the rural research group of backbenchers, said the government’s easing the inheritance tax was “fantastic news.”

But a Labour source described the timing of the change as “bizarre”.

He said many MPs would be angry because “they were recently forced to vote for it.”

“This fight is not over,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a post on social media.

“Other family businesses are still affected by Labour’s tax raids, and we will keep applying the pressure until the tax is lifted from them too.”

Liberal Democrat spokesman Tim Farron MP said, “It is completely inexcusable that family farmers have had to endure more than a year of uncertainty and suffering since these changes were first announced by the Government.

“We demand that the government scrap this unfair tax altogether and if they refuse, the Liberal Democrats will table an amendment in the New Year to reduce it.”

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said: “This scandalous drop – although better than nothing – does little to address the year of anxiety that farmers have faced in planning to protect their livelihoods… With British agriculture hanging on by a thread, the government must step up and end this harsh farm tax.”

In her first budget in 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced she would reverse the 100% inheritance tax relief on agricultural properties that had been in place since the 1980s.

The move would see inherited agricultural properties worth more than £1m taxed at 20%, half the standard inheritance tax rate, raising an estimated £520m a year by 2029.

The government had argued that the change would protect small farms while preventing wealthy investors from purchasing agricultural land as a way to avoid taxes.

However, it has now backtracked on the original proposal to raise the threshold level to £2.5m.

Combined with an exemption that allows farmers to pass tax-free assets to their spouses, this new government concession means a couple can give away up to £5 million in qualifying assets without paying tax.

Above the limit, a relief of 50% will be applied to the remaining assets.

According to the government, the number of estates in the UK expected to pay more inheritance tax in 2026/27 will fall from around 2,000 under the original plans to 1,100 under the new proposal.

A Treasury source said changing the limit would cost the government £130 million, but there were “no plans” to scrap the policy altogether.

“The principle remains to reform the tax system,” the source said. “It’s true that the wealthiest estates contribute fairly, but smaller farms will receive assistance.”

The government has made a series of U-turns since its election in July 2024, with this decline being the latest.

Earlier this year, the government effortlessly reduced the winter fuel payment and abandoned its plans to reduce the welfare bill by £5 billion.