The sight of the army on Britain’s streets after the Manchester suicide bomb attack is a clear sign that the UK’s foreign policy and approach to fighting terrorism is not working, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

The Labour leader said there must be more money for law enforcement, as he suggested Britain’s intervention in wars abroad had fuelled the risk of terrorism at home.

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“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,” he said.

His comments drew immediate criticism from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, accusing Corbyn of “very muddled and dangerous thinking” that implied blame on Britain for somehow bringing the Manchester terror attack on itself.

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, intensified the attack, saying Corbyn’s comments were “absolutely monstrous”. Speaking alongside the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, he said it was “absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way”.

However, Corbyn pitched his intervention carefully, saying he was clear that terrorists were entirely to blame for their own actions but that governments must also examine the effectiveness of their policy decisions.

“No rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre,” he said, speaking in Westminster.

“But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.”

A Labour government would ensure that “our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country”, he added.

He said seeing the army on “our own streets today is a stark reminder that the current approach has failed”.

The longtime peace campaigner and former chair of the Stop the War coalition also made a direct promise to troops that under a Labour government they would only be sent into combat abroad if they were properly resourced, and there was a clear need for military intervention and a plan for lasting peace afterwards.

“That is my commitment to our armed services,” he said. “This is my commitment to our country. I want the solidarity, humanity and compassion that we have seen on the streets of Manchester this week to be the values that guide our government. There can be no love of country if there is neglect or disregard for its people.”

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His speech marked the return of Labour to national campaigning after a pause following the Manchester Arena suicide bombing, which killed 22 people and injured 116 after an Ariana Grande pop concert aimed at young girls.

Corbyn’s event started with a minute’s silence and he did not take questions afterwards, as aides said the campaign was being “phased in”.

With less than a fortnight until polling day, Labour is gaining ground on the Conservatives, who are now just five points ahead, according to the latest YouGov poll for the Times.

Corbyn’s speech emphasised that he was only blaming terrorists for the attack, and he stressed he did not want to “make a narrow party political point”.

But he made clear criticisms of Theresa May’s record as home secretary, when she oversaw cuts to policing.

He told his audience in London that a government led by his party would provide more resources for law enforcement and the NHS to ensure people were “not protected and cared for on the cheap”.

Within hours of the speech, Fallon, who has often been used by the Tories as an attack dog in elections, told the BBC and Sky that Corbyn was “implying this attack might be our fault, might be Britain’s fault as a result of our foreign policy”.



“This is a very badly timed speech, showing some very muddled and dangerous thinking. He seems to be implying that a terrorist attack in Manchester is somehow our fault, it’s somehow Britain’s fault. Jeremy Corbyn is far too ready to find excuses and far too slow to support the police and the security services.

“This is a man, by the way, who has opposed every piece of terrorist legislation, who thinks we should talk to terrorists, and who’s even questioned whether police should be right to shoot to kill.”

He said the number of armed officers on the streets had increased, and claimed the safety of people was not just about overall numbers of police but frequency of patrols and funding for the intelligence services.

“It also means being tough against terrorism and that is where Mr Corbyn is weak, it is where he lets himself down,” he said.

Johnson added to the attack after meeting his US counterpart in London. “This is a moment ... when we should be coming together, uniting to defeat these people, and we can and we will, not just in Iraq and in Syria but of course in the battle for the hearts and minds,” he said. “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.”

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, also criticised Corbyn’s speech, saying: “A few days ago, a young man built a bomb, walked into a pop concert and deliberately slaughtered children. Our children. Families are grieving. A community is in shock. Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to use that grotesque act to make a political point.”



Farron added: “I don’t agree with what he says, but I disagree even more that now is the time to say it. That’s not leadership, it’s putting politics before people at a time of tragedy.”

But Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general and former Liberty campaigner, said Corbyn had been “subject to horrible character attacks” and people misinterpreting his speech.

She told the BBC’s World At One: “I hear the criticism, but that is not my reading of the speech. Jeremy was clear there was absolutely no excuse, no justification based in foreign policy for the atrocities we’ve seen. However, it is right he says to the military, as a PM in waiting, it is because there is clear need and there will be a plan … you’re correct that ill-conceived conflicts will be jumped on as an excuse. But the reason not to engage in ill-conceived conflict is because it is ill-conceived.”

Corbyn and his close aides have long held the view that British foreign policy, including the involvement of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he vehemently opposed, has exacerbated the risk of terrorist attacks by destabilising the Middle East and fuelling suspicion of the west.