Boris
Johnson on The Andrew Marr Show
Boris
Johnson ignores family’s plea not to exploit victims' deaths
PM accused
of ‘distasteful’ attempt to turn London Bridge attack into election issue
Peter
Walker and Frances Perraudin
Mon 2 Dec
2019 00.35 GMTFirst published on Sun 1 Dec 2019 20.43 GMT
Boris
Johnson has been accused of twisting the facts of the London Bridge terror
attack in a “distasteful” attempt to turn it into an election issue, as he
tried to blame Labour for the release of the terrorist who stabbed two people
to death.
Despite one
of the victims’ families pleading for their son’s death not to be used as an
excuse for kneejerk political reaction, Johnson claimed that “a lefty
government” was responsible for Usman Khan being freed.
The family
of Jack Merritt called for the murder of “our beautiful, talented boy” to not
be exploited for political gain, as police named the second victim as Saskia
Jones, a prisoner rehabilitation volunteer.
But the
Conservatives nonetheless sought to push a perceived political advantage on the
issue, promising to end early release for people convicted of terrorism, while
saying Jeremy Corbyn was unable to keep the public safe.
Early on
Monday, as the day’s front pages emerged covering a proposed Tory crackdown on
those freed after serving sentences for terrorism, Merritt’s father David
tweeted saying: “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.”
Richard
Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, accused Johnson of going “straight from a
tragedy to reheating pre-packaged political lines smearing the Labour party”.
The
political row came as:
• MI5 began
an inquiry into how a suspect whom they had under “active investigation” could
have launched such an attack.
• It
emerged that investigators discounted Isis’s claim of responsibility and
believe Khan acted alone in the planning, which could have started as little as
24 hours before he struck.
• West
Midlands police arrested a man who had been convicted of the same bomb plot as
Khan on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts. It followed a review of
licence conditions after the London Bridge attack.
• Johnson
said there were “probably about 74” convicted terrorists who had now been
freed, saying these would be “properly invigilated to make sure there is no
threat”.
Khan was
released under licence a year ago, seven years into a jail term imposed for
taking part in an al-Qaida-inspired bomb plot. On Friday he murdered Jones and
Merritt in a knife attack at a conference on prisoner rehabilitation. Khan was
tackled by members of the public on London Bridge, and then shot dead by
police.
A police
statement naming Jones said she had been volunteering at the event organised by
Learning Together, a programme run by Cambridge University’s criminology
institute. A family statement called her “a funny, kind, positive influence at
the centre of many people’s lives”.
Merritt was
a course coordinator for Learning Together. In a statement, his family
reiterated their call for his murder to not be exploited for political gain.
They said:
“We know Jack would not want this terrible, isolated incident to be used as a
pretext by the government for introducing even more draconian sentences on
prisoners, or for detaining people in prison for longer than necessary.”
The family
added: “Jack lived his principles: he believed in redemption and rehabilitation
– not revenge – and he always took the side of the underdog.”
On Sunday,
Johnson had used a lengthy interview on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show to blame
Labour for the early release of Khan.
The prime
minister said: “His release was necessary under the law because of the
automatic early release scheme under which he was sentenced – that was the
reality – and that was brought in by Labour with the support of Jeremy Corbyn
and the rest of the Labour party.”
He added:
“I think it is ridiculous, I think it is repulsive, that individuals as
dangerous as this man should be allowed out after serving only eight years and
that’s why we are going to change the law.”
The reality
of the case is more complex. Khan was jailed in 2012 under an indeterminate
public protection (IPP) sentence, a system scrapped under the Conservative-led
government the same year. An appeal in 2013 resulted in the sentence being
replaced by one of 16 years, and he was freed after serving just under half of
that.
Shortly
before Johnson’s appearance on The Andrew Marr Show, his staff sent out a
lengthy Twitter thread on the PM’s account explaining what they said was the
legal context.
This
prompted a popular legal blogger and best-selling author, known as the Secret
Barrister, to accuse No 10 of having copied and pasted parts of a blogpost they
had written on the issue to debunk earlier inaccuracies made by Johnson.
Jo Swinson,
the Liberal Democrat leader, condemned Johnson’s response to the attack. She
told BBC Radio 5: “You’ve got a community which is coming together in a
brilliant way and straight out of the door the prime minister’s trying to make
it an election issue – I just think it’s pretty distasteful.”
But the
foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, denied that the Conservatives were
politicising the attack.
However, he
cited the incident to warn against what he said would be harmful Labour
policies. “The question is, for people who are watching the show, who they
trust: Boris Johnson to keep us safe or Jeremy Corbyn, with his track record?”
he told Sky News.
The Labour
leader said on Sunday that convicted terrorists should “not necessarily” serve
their full sentence, calling instead for a wider focus on issues such as
rehabilitation and deradicalisation
In a later
speech, Corbyn condemned cuts to areas such as probation and mental health or
youth services, saying this was likely to create “missed chances to intervene
in the lives of people who go on to commit inexcusable acts”.
Blaming the
Iraq war and other UK foreign policy decisions for fuelling terrorism, Corbyn
said: “Real security doesn’t only come from strong laws and intelligence, it
comes also from effective public services that have the funding they need.”
Cambridge
University’s vice-chancellor, Stephen J Toope, said he was devastated by the
attack. He said: “What should have been a joyous opportunity to celebrate the
achievements of this unique and socially transformative programme, hosted by
our Institute of Criminology, was instead disrupted by an unspeakable criminal
act.”
The NHS
confirmed on Sunday night that one of the three people injured in the attack
had been allowed to return home. The other two remained in a stable
condition.
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