Theresa: Corbyn ‘making excuses for terrorists’
THERESA May last night declared there could never be an excuse for terrorism after Jeremy Corbyn linked the Manchester attacks with military operations by British troops.
Putting the bombing at the heart of the election campaign, the Prime Minister insisted Labour’s leader was ‘not up to the job’ of running the country.
As he returned to the campaign trail yesterday, Mr Corbyn stepped up his criticism of UK foreign policy, saying he would deploy soldiers abroad only when there was a clear need and a plan to deliver lasting peace.
Speaking at the G7 summit in Sicily last night, Mrs May said: ‘I have been here working with other international leaders to fight terrorism, at the same time Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault and he has chosen to do that just a few days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities we have experienced.
‘There can never ever be an excuse for
‘Frankly not up to the job’
terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester.
‘The choice people face at the election has just become starker – it’s a choice between me working constantly to protect the national interest and our security, and Jeremy Corbyn who is frankly not up to the job.’
Mr Corbyn had claimed that putting soldiers on British streets showed efforts to tackle terrorism were not working and that the Government ‘must do better’.
He pledged to put more police on duty and give the security services extra resources to keep track of terror suspects.
‘Protecting this country requires us to be both strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism,’ he said. ‘The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security. We must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working.
‘We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists.’
Boris Johnson said Mr Corbyn was using the murder of 22 people in Manchester for political gain. ‘It is absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way,’ said the Foreign Secretary.
He later accused Mr Corbyn of spending his political career ‘sticking up for terrorists, sympathising with the IRA, with Hamas, with Hezbollah’.
‘Mr Corbyn should be ashamed of himself,’ he added.
Sir Michael Fallon warned that the speech showed Mr Corbyn was ‘weak, weak, weak’.
The Defence Secretary said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn could be prime minister of our country in less than two weeks’ time yet he has said only days after one of the worst terror-
‘Not some slip of the tongue’
ist atrocities this country has ever known that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault.
‘There can be no buts when it comes to condemning the unspeakable evil carried out by these extremists. There are no justifications, and there is never an excuse for terrorism.
‘Let me spell something out for Mr Corbyn: There are no excuses for what was done in Manches- ter.’ Sir Michael said the remarks were ‘not some slip of the tongue’ and showed how ‘very dangerous’ Mr Corbyn was.
‘Jeremy Corbyn is a very consistent man, he has a very long track record of siding with people who want to damage and attack Britain,’ he added. ‘He and his team come from an extreme and ideological world that is too quick to make excuses for the actions of our enemies and too willing to oppose the measures and people that keep us safe.’
Labour’s Manchester mayor Andy Burnham joined the condemnation of Mr Corbyn from across the political spectrum.
‘I have a different view to Jeremy on this,’ he told Talk Radio. ‘9/11 happened before any interventions overseas, and the ideology was in existence before that.
‘It [radical Islam] has used things to add to its cause. But it was there, we didn’t create it. [There’s] a tendency to blame governments for everything, and I don’t think we should.’