If Jeremy Corbyn wins the General Election, we’ll have a PM who thinks Britain is the problem

JEREMY CORBYN and his crowd always blame Britain first.

They believe the West is responsible for the world’s ills.

So in his first speech since the Manchester attack, Corbyn chose to say that British foreign policy increases the risk of terrorist attacks at home.

Corbyn’s desire to make this point before the victims had been buried shows just how central it is to his political world view. It is at the very core of what he believes.

But it is also wrong-headed.

The Manchester attacker chose to target a concert aimed at teenage girls because the liberation of women represents one of the things the terrorists hate about us.

Even many of Corbyn’s own MPs were embarrassed by his speech. I understand several of them tried to persuade him not to deliver it.

In the past few months terrorists have attacked the home of our parliamentary democracy and then this concert. Democracy and our free society is what these terrorists object to most.

If Corbyn were to become Prime Minister — an outlandish thought, but with the Tory lead down to five points in one poll one that is not totally out of the realms of possibility — the country would be led by someone who regards Britain as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Up to now, the Tories haven’t been vocal enough about making this point. They have used junior ministers to say it, not the principals.

Even those close to Theresa May aren’t quite sure why the Tory campaign has been so hesitant about this argument.

While some of the earliest backers of her leadership bid have been sending messages to her team urging them to get on with it before it is too late.

In the next 12 days the Tories need to hammer this message home.

Michael Fallon’s criticisms of the Labour leader’s world view should be just the start.

And Theresa May and her team should not be too proud to ask for Boris Johnson’s help in making this point. Few politicians have the ability he does to make arguments stick in the public’s mind.

Indeed, I understand that — not before time — he is being sent out today to make the case that Corbyn never stands up for Britain.

The Tories intend to spend the weekend pointing to the anti-terrorism legislation that Corbyn has opposed, which is nearly all of it.

They will also attack him for his scepticism about Nato, the alliance which has kept Britain safe in the post-war era.

The social care policy and subsequent U-turn was poor politics by Mrs May and her team. It has dented her reputation for straight talking and steady leadership.

But the first duty of government is to protect its citizens — and on that front, Mrs May is the only credible choice at this election.

It's the Crosby show at Tory HQ

IN 2015 Lynton Crosby was in total command of the Tory general election campaign. This time round he is not.

I understand that Crosby only saw the manifesto a day or so before it went to the printer. His concerns about the social care policy and ending the winter fuel allowance for all but poorer pensioners didn’t lead to either scheme being dropped.

But with both strategies prompting a backlash – Tory canvassers say ending the winter fuel allowance is as unpopular in the North West and the North East as the so-called “dementia tax” was in London and the South East – and Theresa May being forced to humiliatingly backtrack on social care, Crosby’s influence over the campaign has grown, I’m told.

We will also see more of David Davis, Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson between now and June 8. It really will be Mrs May and her team, rather than the almost exclusive focus on the Prime ­Minister that there has been for the first few weeks of this campaign.

For the next 12 days, the Tory campaign will need the kind of relentless focus that Crosby provides if Mrs May is to win the kind of majority Tory MPs are expecting. Those on the ground, though, are sceptical of the idea that the Tory lead is down to five points.

One experienced campaigner tells me: “I don’t pretend for a moment it is a 20-point gap. But there hasn’t been a catastrophic fall off.”

However much Conservative Campaign HQ tries to manage expectations, Tory MPs are expecting a ­majority of 80-plus. They will be disappointed with anything less. If the majority falls significantly below that, they will wonder if Mrs May’s early election gamble really was worth it.

Tackling ideology is crucial

FIVE terrorist attacks have been foiled in the past four weeks, I understand.

This information shows the scale of the threat we face. Those tasked with keeping the country safe tell me we were living through a heightened period of terrorist activity even before the Manchester attack.

The job facing the security services is almost impossible. Read through this newspaper today and you will see how many targets there are for the terrorists. Every sporting fixture, every concert and every political event offers them a chance to kill large numbers of people – which is what they want to do.

It is simply not feasible to throw airline-style security around every one of these occasions.

Equally, it is not possible, in a free society, to constantly monitor the movements of everyone the authorities have concerns about. I understand that the reason the number of persons of interest to the security services has remained at 3,000 for so long is that the security services are operating an informal one in, one out policy.

So no one can be added to this list unless someone else is taken off.

In these circumstances it will never be possible to stop every terrorist attack. After all, the terrorists only have to get lucky once.

This is why it is imperative we tackle the ideology that lies behind these attacks.

This means combating the grievance culture that so often starts people on the path to extremism and fully backing the Government’s counter-radicalisation programme.

• James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator