Theresa May lashes out at Jeremy Corbyn for speech linking Manchester bombing to government’s war on terror just four days after atrocity left 22 dead
Labour leader said today we need a response to ISIS which 'fights rather than fuels terrorism'
THERESA May accused Jeremy Corbyn of making “an excuse for terrorism” last night after he linked government policy to the Manchester bombing.
The PM said the Labour leader’s inflammatory return to the election fray had made the choice facing voters at next month’s election “starker”.
It came after a day of outrage from across the political divide sparked by Mr Corbyn’s rant that Labour would “change what we do abroad” to make the UK safer.
In his first speech since 22 people died in the Manchester attack, Mr Corbyn said: “If we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security.”
And he pointed to “the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism at home”.
Speaking in Westminster he called for a foreign policy that “fights rather than fuels terrorism” and “reduces rather than increases the threat to this country”.
And last night he said we must look at “ungoverned spaces around the world and the consequences of our wars of intervention”.
But his timing was immediately branded “crass”, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson saying Mr Corbyn “should be ashamed”.
He accused him of “sticking up for terrorists” and “blocking every single piece of anti-terrorist legislation in the last 30 years”.
And he said the bombing was nothing to do with policy but was caused by “a sick ideology, a perverted version of Islam that hates us and hates our way of life”.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon accused Mr Corbyn of “muddled and dangerous thinking” and said he was “weak, weak, weak” on terror.
Mr Fallon also attacked Mr Corbyn’s “very long track record of siding with people who want to damage and attack Britain”.
He said: “He seems to be implying that a terrorist attack in Manchester is somehow our fault, is somehow Britain’s fault.”
But Mrs May, speaking from Sicily, said: “There can never ever be an excuse for terrorism.
“There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester.
“And I think that the choice people have at the General Election just got starker.”
Mrs May also said My Corbyn “is not up to the job” of being PM.
The backlash over the Labour leader’s controversial speech spread within his own party.
Former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he “could not believe Jeremy Corbyn is PM material” after the speech.
And Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told talkRADIO: “There’s a tendency to blame governments for everything, and I don’t think we should.
"The people who committed this appalling act are responsible for it, 100 per cent.”
A minute’s silence was held ahead of Mr Corbyn’s 16-minute intervention, where he pledged change “at home and abroad”.
It included saying soldiers would only be deployed abroad “when there is a clear need” — and a plan that will guarantee lasting peace.
But he declined to take questions, leaving it unclear what deployments overseas he would support.
Last night a spokesman for Mr Corbyn denied he had made excuses for terrorists and said: “Once again, Theresa May is not telling the truth.”
