Corbyn calls for fresh approach as 'war on terror not working'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a speech on Friday that the UK’s participation in wars overseas has contributed to the growing terror threat in the West.

Political campaigning resumed on Friday after Monday's suicide bomb at the Manchester Arena which left 22 people dead and 64 more injured.

Ahead of Corbyn's speech in London, excerpts released to the media showed the Labour leader going on the offensive against the foreign policy of governments formed by both the Conservatives and his own party in the past, such as Tony Blair's Iraq campaign - although he held back from any mention of Iraq.

Corbyn proclaim that the "war on terror is simply not working" in the speech, and promised a major foreign policy shake up which will include "change at home and change abroad", including reversing cuts to emergency services and police.

"Austerity has to stop at the A&E ward and at the police station door. We cannot be protected and cared for on the cheap."

Corbyn will proclaim that the "war on terror is simply not working"

The Labour leader's comments will arrive at a tense time, with emotions still high in Manchester and across the UK in the wake of Monday's attack.

Corbyn emphasised that British foreign policy does not absolve any guilt from those who were responsible for the Manchester bomb.

"Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions," Corbyn said.

In the full version of his speech, Corbyn said: “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.”

Without mentioning Iraq he also cited some of the failed overseas campaigns carried out by the government as part of a Western alliance, including Libya, where Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi had visited before he returned to the UK, as a failed Western intervention to which the UK played a major part, an argument that ties in with the Commons foreign affairs committee's damning report last year.

Current polls show the Conservative lead over Labour has fallen to its lowest level since PM Theresa May called the snap election in April, with Labour gaining momentum with less than two weeks to go to the key vote.

Corbyn criticism

There was criticism for the Labour leader, including from security minister Ben Wallace, who said he thought the timing of the speech was "totally inappropriate and crassly timed”, while foreign secretary Boris Johnson derided Corbyn’s speech as “absolutely monstrous” and argued that focusing on the link between foreign policy and terror went some way to absolving Abedi of some responsibility for the Manchester attack.

Johnson, whose own theory two years ago was that young men were turned into the Islamic State bombers due to their failure with women and obsession with porn, said of ISIS terrorists: "They are wrong, their view of the world is a corruption and perversion of Islam and it can be completely confounded. But now is not the time to do anything to subtract from the fundamental responsibility of those individuals, that individual in particular, who committed this atrocity and I think it is absolutely monstrous that anybody should seek to do so."

Ex Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, a former member of the Royal Marines, said: “Some political leaders have sought to politicise the events of the week, but now is not the time, and this is not the event, to seek political advantage.” Current LibDem lead Tim Farron also said he felt the speech came too soon after events in Manchester.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon condemned the speech for its timing and showing "dangerous thinking", telling the BBC: "He seems to be implying that a terorrist attack in Manchester is somehow our fault, it’s somehow Britain’s fault. Jeremy Corbyn is far to ready to ready to find excuses and far to slow to support the police and the security services."

Corbyn's right to debate

However, Corbyn insisted that British foreign policy "in no way" justified what happened in Manchester this week and that the attacker was "no more representative of Muslims, than the murderer of Jo Cox spoke for anyone else".

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon backed Corbyn's decision to speak about the policy on terror - "particularly in an election campaign" - and discuss how the government can keep the population safe.

A long-standing critic of the war in Iraq, she said her SNP party believe such a foreign-policy approach "tended to hinder rather than help the process of dealing with the underlying problems".

"We must be able to have these debates, particularly in an election campaign, without anyone suggesting in any way, shape or form that that is justifying or defending terrorist atrocities."

She added: "Foreign policy in a Westminster general election can’t be a no-go area, it must be something we have the ability to debate, and debate robustly, and I hope all of us would stand up for that principle."

Support for the speech also came from Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green party, said the responsibility for terror attacks like that in Manchester lies solely with those who perpetrate these heinous crimes, but agreed with Corbyn that it was important to look at the wider picture too.

"The Labour leader is right to point to failed Western intervention as a cause of instability. Indeed when you look at the Libyan Intervention you see failure at almost every level.

"If we’re going to beat terrorism we need both adequate security measures at home and a look at how Britain’s role in world affairs can have serious unintended consequences which lead to greater insecurity."

Further reporting by Oliver Haill.