2 December 2019

Why the London Bridge attack is a challenge for Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson

Police and emergency vechiles gather near London Bridge in London, on November 29, 2019 after reports of shots being fired on London Bridge. - A man wearing a suspected hoax explosive device was shot dead by armed officers on London Bridge on Friday after a stabbing spree, in what police said was a terrorist incident. (Photo by DANIEL SORABJI / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL SORABJI/AFP via Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn delivered a speech on two subjects that have a ready audience among a British public that is still deeply sceptical of military intervention following the Iraq war. He said that British foreign policy has exacerbated the terror threat, and that British foreign policy needs to free itself from its close alignment with the United States.

Whatever you may think of those positions, they are opinions with a large constituency in the country as a whole. The same can’t be said for the other thing that Corbyn called for: a greater focus on rehabilitation in prison, saying that it isn’t necessarily in the public interest for prisoners to serve their full sentences.