‘Complete capitulation and weakness’:

Corbyn record on terror laws and overseas wars

Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to tackle the terror threat to Britain was called into question last night after it emerged that he had boasted about his efforts to block security laws.

Addressing a Stop The War Coalition conference in 2011, he said: “I’ve been involved in opposing anti-terror legislation ever since I first went into Parliament in 1983.”

The Conservatives also criticised the Labour leader for his record opposing Britain’s involvement in wars overseas, claiming it showed he was

“not serious about defence”.

Sir Gerald Howarth, the former Tory defence minister, said yesterday: “Jeremy Corbyn has opposed every British military intervention and represents complete capitulation and weakness.”

Here, The Telegraph analyses Mr Corbyn’s record on terror legislation and overseas wars over three decades as an MP:

Voted against the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Bill in 1984. It introduced police powers to arrest a person suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism connected to Northern Ireland. Opposed the 1989 Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Bill, which proscribed the IRA and Irish National Liberation Army. Voted against the

2000 Terrorism Bill, which gave police powers to stop and search anyone in a designated area without having to show reasonable suspicion for doing so. Opposed the 2006 Terrorism Bill, which outlawed the glorification of terrorism, cracked down on jihadists attending training camps and prohibited the circulation of terrorist publications. Opposed the introduction of Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures in 2011. The measures imposed restrictions on individuals suspected of being involved in terrorism but where there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them. Voted against the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, which gave authorities emergency access to phone and internet records and required communications companies to retain data for 12 months.

As chairman of his constituency Labour party, called the Falklands war in 1982 a “Tory plot” in which unemployed men were sent to die. Spoke against the Gulf War, triggered following Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Kuwait in August 1990. Voted against the Iraq war 2003. Claimed that 9/11 was “manipulated” to make it look like Osama bin Laden was responsible to allow the West to go to war in Afghanistan. In the 2003 article for the Morning

Star, he wrote: “After September 11, the claims that bin Laden and al-qaeda had committed the atrocity were quickly and loudly made. This was turned into an attack on the Taliban and then, subtly, into regime change in Afghanistan.” Chaired the governing committee of the Stop the War Coalition, which was formed to oppose the Afghanistan war in 2001. In 2010 voted against the continued deployment of UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan.