Terror checks intensify as London Bridge attack enters poll fray
London, UK - Britain’s Boris Johnson said he had ordered the security services to step up monitoring of convicted terrorists released early from prison, prompting accusations that he was exploiting the London Bridge attack for political gain less than two weeks before elections.
The Prime Minister revealed officials were scrutinising around 74 people with terrorist convictions who had been released early from prison like Usman Khan, who left jail last December and went on to stab two people to death in Friday’s rampage.
‘They are being properly invigilated to make sure there is no threat,’ Johnson told the BBC. ‘We’ve taken a lot of action as you can imagine in the last 48 hours.’
Under the review of released terror convicts, police in the West Midlands said they had arrested a 34 year old man ‘on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts’.
British media said he was a former associate of the London Bridge attacker and had been jailed alongside Khan in 2012 over a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange.
Police said, however, there was no information to suggest a link to Friday’s attack.
Khan (28) - wearing a fake explosives vest - was shot dead by police on London Bridge after a stabbing spree launched in a nearby hall hosting an ex-offenders’ event that also left three people injured.
L-R: London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn take part in a vigil for the victims, at the Guildhall in central London on Monday
Police on Sunday formally named the two victims killed as Jack Merritt (25) from Cambridgeshire in eastern England, and 23 year old Saskia Jones of Warwickshire in the West Midlands.
PM Johnson vows to stiffen sentences
Johnson blamed the previous Labour government for changing the law in 2008 to allow for the early release of prisoners and vowed to introduce minimum 14-year sentences if he regains power in the December 12 vote.
He penned an article setting out the new stance in The Mail on Sunday newspaper, under the headline: ‘Give me a majority and I’ll keep you safe from terror’.
Critics hit out at him for appearing to politicise Fridays attack - including the family of victim Jack Merritt, who said he died ‘doing what he loved’.
While Johnson has vowed to stiffen sentences following the attack, Merritt’s family said their son ‘believed in redemption and rehabilitation, not revenge’ and that ‘he always took the side of the underdog’.
‘We know Jack would not want this terrible, isolated incident to be used as a pretext by the government for introducing even more draconian sentences on prisoners, or for detaining people in prison for longer than necessary,’ they said in a statement.