May’s cuts to police and security services under fire from Corbyn after attacks

● Public can’t be protected ‘on the cheap’, Labour leader warns ● His party pledges to invest in more frontline officers

Jeremy Corbyn has launched a stinging attack on Theresa May’s record on dealing with the terrorist threat, as general election hostilities resumed.

The Labour leader last night accused the Prime Minister of denying resources to the police and security services and suppressing a report believed to make sensitive allegations about Saudi Arabian funding of extremists.

He tried to end the controversy over his lack of support for police “shoot-to-kill” tactics against armed attackers by stating that he backed the “full authority for the police to use whatever force is necessary to protect and save life as they did last night, as they did in Westminster in March”.

In a speech in Carlisle a day after the terrorist attack at London Bridge, Mr Corbyn vowed to take “whatever action is necessary and effective” to preserve public safety.

He warned the government it could not “protect the public on the cheap” after recent cuts.

The Prime Minister reduced police manpower south of the Border by 20,000 despite warnings that this would undermine safety, said Mr Corbyn, who promised to recruit an additional 10,000 officers and 1,000 security service agents if his party wins power on Thursday.

Earlier, Mrs May set out a four-pronged strategy to tackle terrorists by countering radical ideology; clamping down on online extremism; preventing the growth of segregated communities; and giving extra powers to police, security agencies and courts.

The PM’S comments sparked complaints from Labour that she was getting involved in political debate on a day when the parties had agreed to halt election campaigning until the evening.

Mr Corbyn backed Mrs May’s insistence that the general election must go ahead as planned.

He said the attacks at Manchester Arena and London Bridge had turned the vote into a “struggle between terrorism and democracy itself”.

He urged voters to “resist Islamophobia and division and turn out on 8 June united in our determination to show our democracy is strong”.

As the pause in campaigning came to an end, Mr Corbyn said: “Our priority must be public safety and I will take whatever action is necessary and effective to protect the security of our people and our country.

“That includes full authority for the police to use whatever force is necessary to protect and save life as they did last night, as they did in Westminster in March.”

He went on to criticise Mrs May’s record as Home Secretary.

He said: “You cannot protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts. Theresa May was warned by the Police Federation but she accused them of ‘crying wolf’.

“We will recruit another 10,000 new police officers,

0 Armed police officers guard the cordoned-off area around including more armed police, as well as 1,000 more security services staff to support our communities and help keep us safe.”

After Mrs May said combating terrorism would require “difficult conversations” with Muslim communities in the UK, Mr Corbyn said the Prime Minister must also be ready to have difficult discussions with close ally and major arms customer Saudi Arabia about terrorism funding.

He cited the delayed publication of an investigation commissioned by former Tory prime minister David Cameron into the foreign funding of extremist Islamist groups, which is reported to focus on the Gulf kingdom.

Mr Corbyn said: “We do need to have some difficult conversations, starting with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that have funded and fuelled extremist ideology,

“It is no good Theresa May suppressing a report into the foreign funding of extremist groups. We have to get serious about cutting off the funding to these terror networks, including Isis, here and in the Middle East.”

Mr Corbyn said the terrorists’ aim was “plainly to derail our democracy and disrupt or even halt this election.

“The mass murderers who brought terror to our streets in London and Manchester want our election to be halted.”