UK police name third London attacker
london — British police on Tuesday named the third of the militants who killed seven people in a knife and van attack in London, and an Italian newspaper said he had been flagged to Britain as a possible militant by Italian authorities.
The fallout from the attack has eclipsed other issues in the political campaign ahead of Thursday’s parliamentary election, with both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party battling to defend their records on security.
In particular, the revelation that at least one of the attackers, Khuram Butt, was well known to security services has raised concerns that they lack the resources to prevent attacks.
British police said the third assailant was Youssef Zaghba, 22, and that he had not been a subject of interest for them or the MI5 domestic intelligence agency.
But Italy’s Corriere della Sera reported that Zaghba had been stopped at Bologna airport in 2016 when trying to fly to Syria via Turkey, and that Italian authorities had identified him as as a potential “foreign fighter” and tipped off Britain about his movements.
Butt, a 27-year-old British national born in Pakistan, had appeared in a British TV documentary.
As details about the militants have emerged, Prime Minister Theresa May has faced questions about her record overseeing cuts to police numbers when she was interior minister.
The latest opinion poll on voting intentions, by Survation for ITV, had the Conservatives’ lead over Labour narrowing to just one point from six points in the same poll a week earlier.
The consensus among pollsters remains that May’s party, who have been in government since 2010, will win a majority. But a campaign email signed by May told Conservative supporters: “With the polls tightening and with just two days to go until polling day, we need to go all out with one final push.”
Before the recent attacks, Brexit and domestic issues such as the state of the health service and the cost of care for the elderly had dominated the election campaign.
When May called the election in April, her Conservatives led in opinion polls by 20 points or more.
But an announcement — made before the Manchester and London Bridge attacks — that they planned to make some of the elderly pay more for their care saw that lead start to shrink, and the trend has continued. Surveys now put the Conservatives ahead by between one and 12 points.
Security has become the number one issue and both main parties issued statements on Tuesday portraying their own positions on policing and intelligence as the most robust. —