UK opposition leader links terrorism to foreign wars

LONDON: Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, said on Friday Britain’s foreign policy and intervention in wars abroad had fueled the threat of terrorism at home as a political truce after the Manchester suicide attack came to an end.

Corbyn also vowed to reverse Prime Minister Theresa May’s police cuts and give the security services more resources if they needed them, saying Britain could not “be protected on the cheap.

Although he said he did not want “to make a narrow party political point,” opponents accused him of exploiting Monday’s bombing by Salman Abedi, a Briton born to Libyan parents, who killed 22 people, including children, at the Manchester Arena after a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

“No government can prevent every terrorist attack. But the responsibility of government is to minimize that chance, to ensure the police have the resources they need, that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country,” he said in a speech in London.

“Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services pointed out the connections between wars that we’ve been involved in or supported ... in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home.”

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, meanwhile, said Britain’s threat level would remain at its highest level “critical” meaning an attack is expectedly imminently.

The level of threat, which is set by the independent Joint Terrorism Analysis Center ( JTAC), was raised to “critical” for the first time in a decade the day after the attack.

“JTAC has assessed that the level of threat should remain at critical while the operation continues,” Rudd told Sky News.

Security Minister Ben Wallace, however, said there was no evidence of a specific threat over the holiday weekend, when a number of major events take place including Saturday’s soccer FA Cup final in London, where extra armed officers will be on duty.

Corbyn, a socialist and veteran anti-war campaigner, also said foreign policy was not solely to blame for terrorism but he would shy away from the interventionist approach that has seen Britain join military action in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan in recent years.

“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is not working,” he said, vowing only to deploy troops when there was a clear need and a plan to secure a lasting peace.

His stance puts him not just at odds with May, who says he would put Britain’s security at risk if he won power.

“I think his timing is incredibly disappointing and crass given there is a live police operation,” Wallace told BBC radio.

“I don’t think the substance of what he says is correct at all.”