Scotland Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe today warned against undermining armed police as Jeremy Corbyn faced Labour anger after opposing “shooting-to-kill” terrorists carrying out attacks in Britain.
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Mr Corbyn has said he is “not happy” with such a policy, saying it is “quite dangerous” and could be “counter-productive”.
“I think it is a genuine concern that the Labour leader doesn’t regard the security and safety of our citizens as a number one priority”, he said.
Mr David said he believed lethal force to be justifiable against an imminent threat to human life where there was no other alternative.
Following the row, Mr Corbyn has now reportedly clarified his stance to the party’s ruling committee, saying he would “support the use of whatever proportionate and strictly necessary force is required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris”.
John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, whose terrified niece hid in a toilet bar for three hours next to one of the restaurants attacked in Paris, reportedly asked Mr Corbyn: “Are you telling Labour party members if somebody’s outside with a Kalashnikov, you are not going to shoot them?”
“All I can say is what is the position of the party”. In the case of a Paris style attack, police “must be absolutely clear that if they have to take out a terrorist to save lives they should go right ahead and do so”, Cameron said.
He also left dangling the possibility that he might quit the frontbench if Mr Corbyn attends a Stop the War Coalition event next month. But you have to protect people.
The opposition leader has refused to back British military intervention in Syria, arguing that he would not support such an action without a United Nations mandate, while he also raised questions over the legality of the UK’s shoot to kill drone program, which has been credited with killing infamous ISIL figure Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John.
Mr Corbyn was chairman of the pressure group for four years.
He said: “Jeremy is simply wrong on this…”
Mr Doughty also criticised Mr Corbyn’s comments about using a “shoot-to-kill” policy.
“Does he agree with me that those that say Paris is reaping the whirlwind of western policy or who want to say Britain’s foreign policy has increased, not diminished, the risks to our own national security are not just absolving the terrorists of responsibility but risk fuelling the sense of grievance and resentment which can develop into extremism and terrorism”.
“As we have seen in the recent past, there are clear dangers to us all in any kind of shoot-to-kill policy”, he wrote.
“We work within the law, but the officers have a few hard decisions”.
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What’s the mission? The mission is to defeat Isis, we’re not going to defeat the ideology immediately, that’s going to take a much longer time but it’s much easier to make sure that we can’t have attacks projected on us such as the ones we’ve had in Paris if Isis does not control territory and there is nowhere for people to go, of whatever type, to go and fight for them.
