Mr Corbyn said: “I’m not happy with the shoot-to-kill policy in general – I think that is quite risky and I think can often can be counterproductive”.
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He told Sky News: “I can only apologise to Sky viewers for the confusion over the last 24-hours, but I am glad our leader Jeremy Corbyn has retracted, or at least clarified, his remarks of yesterday”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday morning, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said that shoot-to-kill was “right and reasonable where there’s immediate threat to life”.
“I can’t answer for Jeremy”.
When asked if the Paris attacks had changed any of that, Ms Abbott said: “Yes, it is a game changer in that it makes the need to resolve the civil war in Syria even more urgent than it was and that’s part of Labour party’s policy, that we put the need for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war right at the top of the agenda”.
In a sign of deteriorating relations in the party, a former parliamentary aide to Alistair Darling was told by the Corbyn-supporting grassroots Momentum group to “get behind the leader or kindly go” after she challenged Corbyn at a party meeting on Monday. All I can say is what is the position of the party – the long-standing position in the United Kingdom.
“If the Government wants to bring that forward, then we would look at it”, he said.
The Caerphilly MP also urged Mr Corbyn to have “no further participation” with the Stop the War Coalition, which published an online article – now deleted – titled: “Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East”.
While condemning the “appalling” attacks, Corbyn said a political settlement must be reached in Syria in order to overcome the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“Secondly, where there is a known terrorist of the worst kind, like Jihadi John, talking about bringing about the destruction of this country, and he is in a lawless state, I utterly support the Prime Minister in his decision to remove this clear and present threat to our security”.
“I await the assassins to come out of the shadows”, Ann Coffey tweeted after the Momentum branch in her Stockport constituency issued the warning.
Mr Doughty also criticised Mr Corbyn’s comments about using a “shoot-to-kill” policy.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said when police officers intervened in life-threatening situations, there was a policy to stop the suspect and while that “might mean killing them”, the force did not have a “shoot-to-kill” policy.
“We have got to get together as a nation and work as strongly as possible”.
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At the same time, a few of Corbyn’s supporters are going to try to get Labour MPs they don’t like deselected in the coming months.
