Lib Dem leader attacks police funding cuts made by Theresa May, but warns that terror attacks should not lead to more censorship or invasions of privacy

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said police and security services were suffering from a lack of resources, rather than a lack of powers, during a BBC Question Time programme in which he was challenged over his party’s plans to roll back surveillance.

Farron said he firmly believed that terror attacks, such as those in London and Manchester over the past weeks, should not motivate an increase in censorship or invasions of privacy.

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“What do the [terrorists] want us to do?” he said. “To give up on our freedoms and our liberties – those are the things we must not sacrifice otherwise the terrorists will have won.”

The Lib Dem leader was the first to take the stage in Edinburgh at the second of the Question Time leaders’ specials. It was originally scheduled for Sunday night but postponed after the London Bridge attack. David Dimbleby, the programme’s regular presenter, was unable to host the event because of preparations for Thursday’s general election programme, so Nick Robinson hosted the programme, which also featured Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader.

Farron said the programme had been “rightly postponed ... to pay tribute to those who passed away, to stand in solidarity with their loved ones and the injured”.

He said that he had felt angry that the “utter wickedness” of the attacks could happen both in London and Manchester. “Was it because of a lack of surveillance or a lack of resources?” he said. “It seems to me that we have the powers to follow and track criminals ... what we don’t have is sufficient pairs of eyes and pairs of hands in our security services and our police forces in order to pursue them and catch them.

“We are much safer if we invest in our police and our security services. The cuts that Theresa May has made in her years as home secretary and then prime minister have not made us safer.”

Farron was challenged over his party manifesto which pledged to “roll back” state surveillance, starting with the so-called “snoopers’ charter” on data retention which the Lib Dems opposed in coalition.

“What we have at the moment is an ever-widening haystack and we are looking for a needle and the answer is not to put more hay into the haystack, it’s to put more magnets around the haystacks so we can find the needles,” he said.

“Our security services need the ability to catch and trace people, but the evidence is not there to support the widening of powers,” he went on, citing the single use of temporary exclusion orders to prevent suspected terrorists from re-entering the country. “It was used once,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t have the powers.”

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Farron said that he was not in favour of routinely arming police, but said more investment was needed in training and recruiting armed officers. “We are the party that want to back our police. It’s easy and tempting for politicians to come up with a knee-jerk response. People are seeking answers and want to see action,” he said.

Khuram Butt, one of the three attackers who drove a van into pedestrians near London’s Borough Market and then attacked members of the public with knives, was apparently reported to anti-terror police by acquaintances, who have claimed that their concerns were ignored. Another of the London attackers, Rachid Redouane, was not known to the police or MI5, the police said.

Farron said it was essential the police retained the trust of the Muslim community. “The community out there are desperate to tackle terrorism and the police do not have the resources to enable them to do it,” he said. “That’s where the priority must be.”

Farron, who is a practising Christian, saw his early campaign dogged by questions over his attitude towards gay sex and abortion. Asked if he was conflicted between his faith and his politics, Farron said being a liberal and being religious were both parts of his identity.



“All these things make up who I am and you are all the blend of different identities ... in a society like this which is so diverse and so balanced,” he said. The Lib Dem leader denied he believed homosexuality was a sin.

“I’m not somebody who wants to go round talking about my faith all the time … I’m not running to be the pope. I’m a political leader, not a religious one.”

Nicola Sturgeon appeared to take a firmer stance on whether the SNP would agree to anti-Tory pact with Labour if Jeremy Corbyn won the election on Thursday, telling one questioner she would be interested in her MPs joining “a progressive alliance” at Westminster.

The Tories have accused Sturgeon of planning to “prop up” a minority Labour government and claimed Corbyn wanted to do a deal with the SNP – claims that Sturgeon and Corbyn have rejected.

Pressed during the election campaign on whether she would support a minority Labour government, the SNP leader insisted last week she would not back a coalition but would back Labour issue by issue “to put forward progressive policies and see a progressive agenda”.

But in an apparent change of stance, Sturgeon told the Question Time audience: “I certainly would want to be part of an alliance, a more progressive alliance, if the arithmetic allowed it, that would keep the Tories out of power.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nicola Sturgeon on the BBC Question Time programme in Edinburgh, presented by Nick Robinson. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

She said would never drop her demands for a new independence referendum immediately after Brexit to make it easier to strike a longterm deal with Labour.

Like Farron, Sturgeon expressed reservations about greater state surveillance and and anti-terrorism powers. She refused to commit the SNP to supporting Theresa May’s call for tougher powers, having previously voted against the so-called “snoopers charter”.

She told the audience that “knee-jerk responses were often the wrong ones,” and the security forces already had wide-ranging powers. However, Sturgeon said the SNP would study very carefully any proposals that might come forward.