Jeremy Corbyn said convicted terrorists should ‘not necessarily’ have to serve the entirety of their prison sentences as Boris Johnson vowed to toughen up terror laws.
The Labour leader said when convicted terrorists are let out of prison ‘depends on the circumstances’ as he was grilled in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack.
Usman Khan stabbed a man and a woman to death on Friday before he was shot dead by police following his release halfway through a 16-year prison sentence for terror offences.
Mr Johnson said scrapping early release from prison for terrorists would have stopped the attack from happening.
The PM said this morning during an appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that it was ‘ridiculous’ and ‘repulsive’ that Khan had been released ‘after serving only eight years’.
He also revealed ‘there are probably about 74’ people similar to Khan who had been let out early after being convicted of terror offences and that the government had taken ‘a lot of action in the last 48 hours’ to make sure they pose no threat to the public.
The Prime Minister has committed to introducing mandatory minimum sentences of 14 years for the most serious terrorist offences and he has said some offenders should never be released.
But his approach is in stark contrast to Mr Corbyn’s who told Sky News in an interview broadcast this morning that he was not against convicted terrorists being released part of the way through their sentence.
Asked if he believed that people convicted of terrorism offences like Khan needed to serve a full prison sentence, he replied: ‘I think it depends on the circumstances, it depends on the sentence but crucially depends on what they’ve done in prison.’
Jeremy Corbyn, pictured on Sky News today, said terrorists should ‘not necessarily’ serve all of their jail term
Boris Johnson, pictured during an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, has vowed to get tougher on terror offences
Interviewer Sophy Ridge then asked: ‘So not necessarily then?’
Mr Corbyn said: ‘No, not necessarily, no. I think there has to be an examination of how our prison services work and crucially what happens to them on release from prison because I need to know whether or not the Parole Board were involved in his release, apparently they were not, they made that statement quite quickly after the release … after [Friday’s] terrible incident.
‘Secondly, there were apparently no probation service involvement in monitoring this former prisoner who after all had only served half his sentence and he came out I think a year ago and there has to be an examination of what goes on in the prison because prisons ought to be a place where people are put away because of major serious offences but also a place where rehabilitation takes place.’
Asked what Labour would do to change the current criminal justice system, specifically regarding terror offences, Mr Corbyn said funding was a crucial issue.
He said: ‘Well we’d do a number of things. One, properly fund our prison service so that the prison officers are able to do their job both as prison officers as well as educators as well as people that deal with dangerous prisoners who committed very dangerous, very serious offences.
‘Secondly, that there be a psychological assessment of somebody in his situation before they are released to see if they are actually a danger, an ever present danger to society and that the Parole Board be involved in making that decision whether they go out ahead of full sentence and after that, we have a probation service worthy of the name.’
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn signalled a U-turn on his opposition to the shoot-to-kill policy used by police in terror attack situations.
The Labour leader said in November 2015 that he was ‘not happy with the shoot-to-kill policy in general’ and claimed it was ‘quite dangerous and I think can often can be counterproductive’.
But in his Sky News interview he said the police had ‘no choice’ but to act in the way that they did on Friday.
He said: ‘I think they had no choice. They were stuck with a situation where there was a credible threat of a bomb belt around his body and it’s an awful situation for any police officer, any public servant to be put in.’
Asked if he was still ‘not happy’ about the shoot-to-kill policy, he replied: ‘This was a situation where the police were faced with a very dangerous position, somebody who had already killed two people – the police may or may not have known that at that point – and he was wrestled to the ground and as far as they were concerned he had explosives strapped to his body and they took the action that they could.
‘I think the police have to take what action they can to defend people in that situation.’
Friday’s attack in central London has sparked a major political row and put national security and crime at the centre of the general election campaign.
Mr Johnson said that because the ‘broken hung parliament was preoccupied with blocking Brexit’, the government was unable to make the changes required to keep violent offenders and terrorists in jail for longer.
A Sentencing Bill included in the Queen’s Speech in October, which became defunct once the election was called, would have changed the automatic release point from halfway to two thirds for adult offenders serving sentences of four years or more for serious violence or sexual offences.
Judges can already impose extended sentences for offenders assessed as ‘dangerous’, where they will serve two thirds, but the proposed legislation would make the longer jail terms mandatory for certain offences.
Mr Johnson said: ‘The terrorist who attacked [on Friday] was sentenced 11 years ago under laws passed in 2008 which established automatic early release.
‘This system has got to end – I repeat, this has got to end, as I’ve been saying for four months.
‘If you are convicted of a serious terrorist offence, there should be a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years – and some should never be released.
‘Further, for all terrorism and extremist offences the sentence announced by the judge must be the time actually served – these criminals must serve every day of their sentence, with no exceptions.
‘These simple changes, in line with what I’ve been saying since becoming Prime Minister, would have prevented this attack.’
Mr Johnson said he would make the suggested changes ‘urgently in the New Year’ if he wins a majority on December 12.
