Bomb came at ‘ideal time for struggling May’ says son of Labour election mastermind
THE son of Jeremy Corbyn’s top election strategist has said the Manchester suicide bombing came at an “unbelievably ideal time” for Theresa May.
Jack Murray, whose father Andrew is Mr Corbyn’s election chief, wrote on Facebook that the media would be “entirely focused” on the attack, which killed 22, rather than the “disastrous” Tory campaign. However, Mr Corbyn’s key allies told Labour supporters not to peddle “conspiracy theories” after Mrs May was accused of trying to capitalise on the attack.
The Prime Minister has been criticised on social media by backers of Mr Corbyn who claimed the decision to raise the terror threat level and to deploy troops was linked to the election.
Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, was forced to distance the party from such allegations as she urged people to be “calm”.
Labour yesterday moved to disassociate itself from Mr Murray’s comments by pointing out that the 30-year-old had never worked for the party nor held any position. A party source said: “Andrew Murray is not responsible for his adult son’s comments.”
Jack Murray described events in Manchester on Facebook as “truly horrific” but said: “One thing is for certain though, that this has come at an unbelievably ideal time for those in power and over the next two weeks the media will now be entirely focused on this terrorist attack and not the disastrous Conservative Party campaign that was losing support daily.”
Andrew Murray, a former member of the communist party who once described Isil’s victories as “stunning triumphs”, was brought in to run Labour’s campaign earlier this month having only joined the party in December.
Diane Abbott, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said she did not wish to “engage in party politics” by discussing troops on the streets – but then appeared to do so by blaming Tory cuts for a shortage of armed officers.
Ms Abbott told Channel 4 News: “I don’t want to engage in party politics. If there is a need for troops to supplement armed officers then of course we accept that. But there will be some concern that these cuts in policing has meant we need troops now.”