Corbyn stepped up the offensive against the Conservative Party and their head, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with a promise to re-shape UK foreign policy. The Labour leader lambasted his rival in the upcoming 12 December snap election as “world’s leading sycophant towards” Trump and linked Tory foreign policy to terror acts.
“This policy has not made us one bit safer, if anything, it has made us less safe… Real security requires calmly making the right calls at moments of high pressure. So, it is time for Britain to stop clinging to Donald Trump’s coattails. Boris Johnson has been world’s leading sycophant towards the president,” Corbyn noted in the video, featuring footage from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, as well as what looks like an image of the London Bridge, where two were killed in a knife assault on Friday.
His pledge, which comes just before Trump’s arrival in London for the NATO summit, found some users split.
Many supported Corbyn’s point of view.
Some elements of UK media claimed that politicians were grandstanding on the terror attacks, even as the father of one of the victims asked lawmakers not to politicise his son’s death.
“Don't use my son's death, and his and his colleague's photos - to promote your vile propaganda. Jack stood against everything you stand for - hatred, division, ignorance,” David Merritt, a Labour activist, said, cited by The Daily Mail.
The victim's family called on decision-makers not to use the tragedy to justify “even more draconian sentences” for offenders. This came amid Johnson’s order to review criminal cases for 74 convicted terrorists released on licence over suspicions of their posing a threat to citizens’ security.
Johnson blamed the last Labour government for the “repulsive” early release of terrorists, vowing to introduce a minimum 14-year prison term, with no possibility of milder sentences.
Sentenced for Plotting Attack
The group had links to radical preacher Anjem Choudary and was inspired by Yemeni-American preacher Anwar al-Awlaki and his al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group, The Times asserted. Khan was also charged with plotting a 2012 attack on the London Stock Exchange, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, and is said to have been planning to target then-mayor of London Boris Johnson.