Johnson accuses Corbyn of siding with UK's enemies in fight on terror
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Version 0 of 1. Boris Johnson intensified the Conservatives’ personal attacks on Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday, accusing him of siding with Britain’s enemies in the fight against terrorism. “For 30 years, [Corbyn] has been soft and muddle-headed on terror. He has been soft and muddle-headed on defence,” Johnson said. “He has taken the side of just about every adversary this country has had in my lifetime, from the IRA to Hamas, from Soviet communism to [Argentina’s] General Galtieri.” Johnson said he did not mean to draw a comparison between the EU and nefarious regimes and terror organisations. “I don’t mean to compare our European friends to any of these people, but it is psychologically impossible to imagine him having the grip or the firmness to get the right Brexit deal for this country,” he said. In a series of attacks on the Labour leader, Johnson made several claims which have been strongly denied by the party. “Jeremy Corbyn [is] at the very best weak and vacillating on terror. He says he’s now in favour of shoot-to-kill,” Johnson said. “He wasn’t until the events of the weekend. I do not see how we can trust him with the safety of our country.” However, Corbyn has repeatedly said he is in favour of the action police took to neutralise the three terrorists who attacked bystanders in London Bridge on Saturday night. In a BBC interview last year, where he said he was “not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general”, Corbyn made clear he was referring to state assassinations, rather than police responding to a terror attack to save lives. Johnson also attacked Corbyn’s stance on the nuclear deterrent, though the Labour leader has committed the party to keeping Trident, despite being a committed unilateralist throughout his time as an MP. “A guy who pre-emptively informs any power that would threaten to engage in nuclear blackmail that as our prime minister he, Corbyn, would not under any circumstances deploy Trident, so making a making a nonsense of our nuclear deterrent,” Johnson said. “He is all over the place on our nuclear deterrent. We are spending £31bn on Trident. What’s the point of this thing if he wants to send it to sea with no nukes aboard, so the whole country is literally firing blanks? It would be a disaster.” Corbyn’s previous scepticism about Nato was also attacked by Johnson, who has been a notable absence in much of the Conservative campaign, which has centred on the prime minister. “I don’t think people in this room or around Britain realise quite how much other countries look to us and depend on us,” Johnson said. “We are one of the great nuclear powers of the world. We are the second biggest Nato contributor. We have a huge military presence around the world ... They would be appalled if Britain was suddenly abstracted, taken away, from the defence of Europe and of the world. And that would be the real tragedy, in my view, of a Jeremy Corbyn premiership.” With polls suggesting that Labour’s vote is surging because of an enthused youth vote, Johnson said some people were voting for Corbyn because they were too young to remember communism or the IRA. “The trouble is young people these days – I’m 52 – do not remember nationalisation,” he said. “They don’t remember Soviet communism. They don’t even remember socialism. We don’t want it back in this country. It would be an absolute disaster.” Labour activists protested as Johnson arrived at Shildon Civic Hall, County Durham, and shouts of “Tories out” could be heard from within the hall as Johnson gave his speech to rows of Conservative activists. Labour’s Helen Goodman is defending a majority of around 3,000 in Bishop Auckland, which includes Shildon, and colleague Jenny Chapman has a similar slim majority in neighbouring Darlington. Though the area has traditionally been a Labour heartland, the Tories are hoping to win several neighbouring seats. “This is one of the most deprived wards in the United Kingdom,” one activist shouted. “That’s thanks to Tory austerity. There are two food banks in this town.” However, the area voted heavily for Brexit, which was the other main focus of Johnson’s speech. The foreign secretary said Labour “would arrive in Brussels like a family of herbivores at a watering hole of lions... They would be eaten for breakfast.” |