Corbyn: UK wars to blame for terror
Labour leader to connect Britain’s military campaigns to atrocities such as Manchester
JEREMY CORBYN will today link Britain’s involvement in military action abroad to terrorist attacks such as the Manchester suicide bomb.
The Labour leader will point to “the connections between wars the Government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home”. The comments, to be made in a speech in central London just four days after the bombing, risk accusations of insensitivity against Mr Corbyn.
He is also likely to be accused of politicising the attack by raising it immediately as general election campaigning restarts this morning.
Mr Corbyn is a consistent opponent of British military intervention and recently said that Britain had not fought a just conflict since 1945. In Parliament he voted against the 2003 war in Iraq, the deployment of troops in Afghanistan in 2010 and the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011.
He has repeatedly voted against antiterrorism legislation since he became an MP in 1983.
The Labour leader, who is a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, has also consistently voted to oppose military action against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, even when dozens of his own MPS disagreed with his stance.
Earlier this week, Mr Corbyn was forced to clarify that he believes the Manchester attack was an act of terrorism after initially referring to it as an “appalling act of violence” and a “terrible incident”. His use of language contrasted with President Donald Trump, who described the attackers as “losers” and Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who said it was an “act of sickening cowardice”.
Charles Clarke, the Labour home secretary at the time of the 7/7 bombings, said last night that Mr Corbyn’s remarks linking the terrorist threat to wars abroad were “simply wrong”. Speaking on the BBC’S Newsnight programme, he said: “I’ve not taken Jeremy’s advice on security matters for some decades now, and I don’t with his remarks tomorrow.
“The core attacks from 9/11 and beforehand have come from forces which are about trying to destroy the whole of our society, this is before the Iraq war, before the wars in Syria.”
Mr Corbyn’s remarks are the latest in which he has demonstrated ambivalence regarding British forces.
He has repeatedly refused to say whether he would use Britain’s nuclear missiles if he became prime minister and said in 2015 he could not think of “any circumstances” in which he would deploy the Armed Forces.
Less than a week ago Mr Corbyn refused to condemn the IRA and equated their actions with those of the British Army, and he has previously described organisations including Hamas and Hizbollah as “friends”.
In a speech in central London, entitled My Commitment to My Country, Mr Corbyn will say the Government has a “responsibility” to ensure that the UK’S foreign policy does not increase the risk to Britons.
Mr Corbyn will say: “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have
pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home. That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions.
“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.”
Mr Corbyn will explicitly link the attack in Manchester with Britain’s history of intervening militarily overseas, as well as cuts to the policing budget.
He will say: “If an individual is determined enough and callous enough, sometimes they will get through. But the responsibility of government is to minimise that chance – to ensure the police have the resources they need, that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country and that at home we never surrender the freedoms we have won and that terrorists are so determined to take away.”