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Boris Johnson today falsely claimed Jeremy Corbyn wants to "scrap MI5" as he told a series of either lies or half-truths in a heated interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr.

The Tory leader clashed with Labour after he said in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack: " Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap MI5 .

"MI5 is responsible for keeping us safe, MI5 monitors thousands of people such as Usman Khan." He added: "Jeremy Corbyn has said he would disband MI5."

Yet Labour's 2019 election manifesto vows the opposite, saying: "We will ensure closer counter terrorism co-ordination between the police and the security services.

"We will ensure the powers exercised by the security services are proportionate and used in accordance with human rights."

A top Labour figure did face a row in 2015 for endorsing a statement which called, among other things, for MI5 to be disbanded.

However, it was John McDonnell not Jeremy Corbyn, and Mr McDonnell later said did not share the view on MI5 or know it was part of the statement when he posed with it.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Labour said Mr Johnson's claim was untrue, tweeting: " Boris Johnson lying again. Jeremy Corbyn does not want to disband MI5.

"We we committed to giving our security services the resources they need after a decade of cuts under the Tories."

It came as a row erupted between the two main parties over the London Bridge attack on Friday afternoon.

(Image: PA)

Convicted terrorist Usman Khan, 28 - who was freed on licence last year - killed a woman and 25-year-old Jack Merritt in a knife rampage at a rehabilitation conference before being shot by police.

Vowing to force all terrorists to serve every day of their sentence behind bars, Mr Johnson blamed a 2008 law "which established automatic early release" for them.

But BBC host Mr Marr said: "For 10 years you've done nothing about it! For 10 years you've done nothing about it! For 10 years you've done nothing about it!"

And political rivals accused him of changing policy in a "knee-jerk" fashion and making "political capital" out of the attack.

Boris Johnson refused to apologise for Khan’s release despite it happening under a Tory government.

The Prime Minister said an appeal judge had “no option but to comply” with a law enacted under Labour in 2008 allowing automatic early release.

(Image: Getty Images)

And he said the government had been “taking a lot of action in the last 48 hours” to review 74 other people in similar circumstances to Khan released on licence from jail.

Mr Johnson said Khan had mentors and restrictions on his mobile phone and internet access - and insisted he was a new Prime Minister making changes.

But the interview covered more than just the London Bridge attack.

It also covered child poverty - with Mr Johnson claiming it had fallen by 400,000 despite figures saying otherwise.

Labour chairman Ian Lavery said: "He cannot seem to open his mouth without telling a lie. You cannot trust a word he says."

Here are three other things Boris Johnson said in today's BBC Andrew Marr interview that were untrue.

1. He said MPs rejected his Queen's Speech

WHAT HE SAID: "One of the reasons we’re having this election is because we have a Queen’s Speech that was blocked by parliament."

THE FACTS: The Queen's Speech passed by 310 votes to 294 on 24 October 2019, and was therefore passed by Parliament, which is the opposite of being blocked by Parliament.

2. He said child poverty had fallen under the Tories

WHAT HE SAID: "There are 400,000 fewer children in poverty than there were in 2010. We are taking steps to alleviate poverty."

THE FACTS:The government's own figures state the number of children in "relative low income", after housing costs, has risen by 500,000 from 3.6million in 2010/11 to 4.1million in 2017/18.

The number of children in "absolute low income", after housing costs, has also risen from 3.6million to 3.7million in the same period.

The same stats also show a rise in child poverty before housing costs, and a rise in children in "severe low income and material deprivation" from 500,000 to 700,000.

The number of children in "low income and material deprivation" has fallen but by 100,000, not the 400,000 Boris Johnson claims.

3. He said appeal court judges had 'no option' but to let the London Bridge attacker go free

WHAT HE SAID: "How could he [Usman Khan] be out [of jail] so early? The answer is, I’m afraid, that he was out because he was on automatic early release. When the judges reviewed his sentence in 2012, they had no option but to comply with the law that Labour brought in 2008 which meant effectively that he was out... in eight years."

THE FACTS: This one is more complicated, but Mr Johnson's comments are still not totally accurate and legal campaigners have said he is misleading the public.

It's true that the Court of Appeal reviewed Usman Khan's sentence in 2013, and reduced it from an "indeterminate" one - with strict limits on the terrorist ever getting out of jail - to an extended "determine" one which contained automatic release.

It's also true that since that case, the law on early release has been tightened up - with Parole Board oversight and release two-thirds, not half, of the way through a sentence.

But the Court of Appeal wasn't directly "forced" to give Khan early release.

Instead, the Appeal Court lowered Khan's sentence because the original judge had wrongly (in the Appeal Court's view) given Khan a longer sentence than a different group of attackers from London, despite both groups being "equally serious".

It just so happens that the lower sentence the Appeal Court decided to dish out contained that problem - which we know now was fatal - of automatic early release.