Evans backtracks on May claims as party launches its manifesto
UKIP DEPUTY chairman Suzanne Evans claimed Theresa May should “bear some responsibility” for the Manchester suicide bombing before quickly backtracking at a stormy launch of the party’s General Election manifesto.
The manifesto launch also saw leader Paul Nuttall denying the party was trying to capitalise on events in Manchester after the event focused heavily on Mrs May’s record as Home Secretary.
He criticised the fall in police numbers under Mrs May as Ukip promised to recruit 20,000 extra police officers, 20,000 new soldiers, 7,000 more prison officers and 4,000 border guards.
During the event, Ms Evans was asked what the point was of listing Mrs May’s failures as Home Secretary if it was not to suggest she should bear some responsibility for the security failings which led to the Manchester attacks.
Ms Evans replied: “I think she (Mrs May) must bear some responsibility – all politicians who voted against measures or voted for measures to make cuts bear some responsibility.”
Only a minute after these comments, Ms Evans appeared to backtrack when she was pressed by a journalist.
She said: “I didn’t say she must bear, no, I didn’t say what she must bear some responsibility for.
“The only person who is responsible, or people who were responsible, for what happened in Manchester are the terrorists, let me make that absolutely clear.
“I think sometimes we are perhaps a little bit too quick to blame other people but the terrorists in these situations.
“But the circumstances that allowed them their ideology to breed, that allowed their hatred to spread, politicians should have taken action on that long ago.”
The event saw Ukip activists boo and hurl abuse at journalists who asked questions.
Mr Nuttall was forced to call on members to “be respectful” after shouts including “crawl back down your hole”, “Fake news”, “What a stupid question” and “Don’t you understand English?” were shouted.
He also rejected the suggestion the event, held shortly before the minute’s silence in memory of the Manchester victims, was exploiting the bombing.
Mr Nuttall said: “What I wanted to do was to ensure that the democratic process continued because the one thing they hate most about us is our democracy. “They want to see it destroyed.” Earlier, Mr Nuttall had said he made no apologies for calling radical Islam “a cancer in our society” after the Westminster terrorist attack earlier this year.
“I will repeat it – it is a cancer that needs to be cut out,” he added.
Manifesto promises included cutting foreign aid to put £11bn into the NHS and social care by the end of the next parliament. THE PUBLICATION of leaked evidence photographs from the scene of the Manchester terror attack was “neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims”,
said. Images, suspected to have been sent to the paper by US police officials, caused outrage when they surfaced on Wednesday and led to a spat between the country and British authorities.
said in a statement: “The images and information presented were neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims, and consistent with the common line of reporting on weapons used in horrific crimes.
“We have strict guidelines on how and in what ways we cover sensitive stories. Our coverage of Monday’s horrific attack has been both comprehensive and responsible.”
Among the material released were images of the bomb’s detonator, the attacker’s tattered backpack and remnants of the blast’s shrapnel. It came hours after Home Secretary Amber Rudd publicly rebuked US authorities for unauthorised leaks.