U.K. attack spawns political controversy
Party leaders trade barbs ahead of June 8 election
LONDON — Less than 24 hours after terrorists killed seven people and injured dozens more in the heart of London, the latest attack to hit Britain this spring became a campaign issue on Sunday, with just four days to go before an unpredictable national election.
Rival party leaders lashed out at one another as police raided homes and carried out a dozen arrests, and as the nation mourned. Tens of thousands attended a benefit concert that was originally intended to honor the dead from last month’s suicide bombing in Manchester but was expanded to recognize the newest victims in London.
Following the Manchester attack, Saturday night’s van-and-knife rampage was the second mass-casualty attack to intrude on the homestretch of a parliamentary campaign that was once thought certain to end in a landslide for Prime Minister Theresa May. But the race has tightened in recent weeks, and terrorism has introduced an unexpected variable.
With her premiership on the line, May on Sunday took an aggressive and combative tone, telling the nation that “enough is enough” and insisting there is “far too much tolerance for extremism in our country.”
“Things need to change,” May said in a speech outside the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.
She blamed the attack on the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism,” called for a thorough review of the nation’s counterterrorism policies and suggested she will take a much tougher line if she wins Thursday’s vote.
The speech was criticized by the opposition Labour Party as a thinly veiled jab at their far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, whom May has often accused of coddling anti-Western militants. May, Corbyn’s backers insisted, had politicized the attack.
But by evening, Corbyn had hit back with his own political response to the killing, accusing May and her Conservative allies of weakening security services through years of austerity.
“You cannot protect the public on the cheap,” Corbyn said in a speech in the northern English city of Carlisle that ended a brief pause in formal campaigning. “The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts.”
The multilayered controversy came as investigators were just beginning to try to unravel details of the assailants and plot behind the killings, which jolted the country Saturday night.
At just after 10 p.m. that evening, three men plowed a rented Renault van into a crowd of pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out and using knives to slash bar and restaurant patrons at the nearby Borough Market.
The attackers were fatally shot by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call, with eight officers firing a total of 50 rounds at men who had donned camouflage and fake suicide vests to carry out the carnage.
British authorities did not identify the victims. But Canada’s prime minister and France’s foreign minister both confirmed that their nationals were among the dead.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said in a late afternoon news conference on Sunday that investigators were still trying to confirm the identities of the attackers and that they were “increasingly confident” there were no other perpetrators. He said police still had “more to do” to determine whether the assailants had any help in planning the attack.
At least 48 people were injured in the attack — including one bystander who was shot by an errant police bullet. Four officers were among the injured. Rowley said Sunday that 21 of those injured are in critical condition.
As doctors and nurses tended to the wounded, police carried out raids in the east London neighborhood
of Barking in a signal that authorities are probing at least the possibility that others may have been involved in the planning of the attack. A dozen people were arrested, police said.
Even as the investigation intensified, authorities did not raise the nation’s threat level, as they had after a bombing in Manchester last month. The decision suggested authorities do not believe another attack is imminent, though under the existing “severe” rating, one is highly likely.
There was no claim of responsibility for Saturday night’s rampage. But investigators were focused on the likelihood that the attack had been inspired, if not directed, by the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility Sunday (though similar claims in the past have been shown to be unreliable). The militant group has called on its followers to carry out attacks in the West, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
May did not detail her plans for confronting the threat. But she floated the idea of tougher prison sentences for less serious terrorismrelated offenses and called on tech companies to do more to crack down on extremist content online.
Facebook responded with a statement calling for “strong partnerships” between tech firms and policymakers.
May also seemed to acknowledge Sunday that British security services are struggling to keep up as the scale of the threat grows. The services say they have disrupted at least 18 plots in recent years. But they have about 3,000 suspected extremists on watch lists — far too many to actively monitor at all times.