Corbyn links attacks to foreign wars
Polls show UK Labour leader gaining on May
LONDON: British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday claimed foreign wars are linked to terrorism at home, while criticising the government for squeezing police budgets as election campaigning resumed four days after a suicide bomber killed 22 people in Manchester.
The UK’s opposition Labour Party leader sought to capitalise on a poll showing the Conservative lead has slipped to 5 percentage points — its narrowest since Theresa May became prime minister in July.
Less than two weeks before the June 8 general election, he ended the truce that followed the bombing, with an attack on austerity policies pursued by Ms May’s Conservatives, saying they weakened the emergency services. He promised to overhaul the UK’s foreign policy so that it “fights rather than fuels terrorism”.
“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is simply not working,” Mr Corbyn, a longtime peace activist who opposed British involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said. “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.”
The pound weakened after the YouGov poll was published. The poll pointed to a dramatic narrowing of the gap that even this month has been as high as 24 points in some polls. If the swing to Labour were uniform across the country, Ms May would lose seats in the House of Commons, with the Tory majority falling to two from 17, the Times newspaper said.
The YouGov poll showed the prime minister is 22 percentage points ahead of Mr Corbyn on the issue of keeping the UK safe from terrorism. An ICM poll this month showed 44% of voters trust Ms May the most to “protect people from threats at home and abroad” compared with just 14% for Corbyn.
His comments seek to shift the debate towards the impact of austerity on police and healthcare budgets — putting the focus on Ms May’s previous role as home secretary with oversight of the police. Under her watch, the number of police officers in England and Wales declined by about 15% to 122,850 as of September.
“Austerity has to stop at the A&E ward and at the police station door,” he said. “We cannot be protected and cared for on the cheap.”
The Conservatives hit back at Mr Corbyn’s comments, saying they were ill-timed.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s comments are inappropriate and crassly timed,” Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC yesterday. “Now is the time to focus on our British values, our intolerance of terrorism and stand united.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd late on Thursday said tackling terrorism “isn’t about those pure numbers on the street”.
“We must not imply that this terrorist activity wouldn’t have taken place if there had been more policing,’’ Ms Rudd said on the BBC’s Question Time programme.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will also restart their national campaigns on Friday, while the UK Independence Party did so on Thursday, saying Ms May should share part of the blame for the Manchester bombing deaths.
Meanwhile, police yesterday arrested a ninth man while continuing to search addresses associated with the bomber who killed 22 people.
Eight other men are in custody in connection with Monday’s blast, with police and security agencies working to prevent further attacks. Britain’s security level has been upgraded to “critical”, meaning officials believe another attack may be imminent.
Authorities are chasing possible links between the bomber, Salman Abedi, and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East.
Mr Abedi, a college dropout who had grown up in the Manchester area, was known to security services because of his radical views. He was the son of Libyan parents who migrated to Britain in the early 1990s.
He reportedly was in contact with family members just before the attack.
The name of the man arrested in the early hours of yesterday and those of the eight others in custody were not released. No one has yet been charged in the bombing.
British police working on the case have resumed intelligence-sharing with US counterparts after a brief halt because of anger over leaks to US media thought by Britain to be coming from US officials.
British officials say that have receive assurances from US authorities that confidential material will be protected.