Finsbury Park mosque attack suspect planned to kill Jeremy Corbyn

Emilio Casalicchio

The man accused of carrying out the Finsbury Park mosque attack has said he planned to kill Jeremy Corbyn.



Darren Osborne said he hired a van to kill the Labour leader on a march he was expected to attend.

He also said killing London mayor Sadiq Khan “would have been like winning the lottery”.

But the 48-year-old denied being behind the wheel when the van ploughed into a crowd of people near the north London mosque in June last year.

He told Woolwich Crown Court yesterday that a “guy called Dave” had been driving at the time.

Mr Osborne said the original plan was to kill a Labour politician in Rochdale, but switched the target to Mr Corbyn, who he believed would attend the Al Quds march in London.

But he said “road blocks” in the capital “thwarted their plans” as he drove towards the March alone.

He said he then headed to the Finsbury Park area because “it was Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency”.

He said attacking the Labour leader would mean "one less terrorist off our streets" and he said it “would have been even better” if they had had the opportunity to kill Mr Khan.

Mr Osborne is accused of driving into a group of people in Finsbury Park, killing 51-year-old Makram Ali and injuring nine others.

He denies charges of murder and attempted murder.