THERESA May has said she will rip up human rights laws if they stop her from tackling terrorism.
As the election campaign entered its final hours, the Prime Minister told supporters last night she would change any laws that got in the way of preventing jihadis attacking Britain.
She said: “As we see the threat changing, evolving, becoming a more complex threat, we need to make sure that our police and security and intelligence agencies have the powers they need.
“And if our human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change the laws so we can do it.”
The Conservative manifesto says the party will not repeal the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) while Brexit is under way but will “consider our human rights legal framework when the process of leaving the EU concludes”. Senior Tory sources said a derogation from the laws could be used.
Meanwhile, the Tories stepped up their assault on Jeremy Corbyn yesterday with Boris Johnson saying the prospect of the Labour leader entering No 10 made him “shudder”.
With pollsters reporting a closing of the gap since Theresa May called the election in April, Johnson used a campaign speech to raise the prospect the Conservatives could lose their Commons majority.
“It makes me shudder to think that we could seriously be about to elect a Corbyn-led coalition that would impose destructive new taxes on businesses, on homes, on gardens — at the very moment when we could be about to go forward with Global Britain,” he said.
“This is the moment to believe in the huge potential of Brexit Britain. Let’s get Brexit done. Let’s get Brexit right. Let’s believe in Britain. And let’s work for the next 48 hours to make sure our negotiations are led by Theresa May and the Conservatives.”
His comments will been seen as an attempt to galvanise Conservative supporters to turn out and vote by raising fears among them that Corbyn could be on the verge of gaining the keys to Downing Street.
They came as Labour claimed Conservative plans to scrap the winter fuel payment for better-off pensioners south of the Border could lead to almost 4000 additional deaths this winter.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: “Re-electing the Tories will represent the single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation in our country.”
Corbyn used a newspaper interview yesterday to reject as “complete nonsense” May’s claim that he did not “believe in Britain”.
“I want us to play a constructive role in the world,” said the Labour leader.
“I want us to have a decent and harmonious community in Britain.
“Does that make me anti-British in some way? It’s a ridiculous argument. It’s utterly ridiculous. Actually, it’s offensive.”
Corbyn backed away from a comment on Monday in which he offered support for calls for May to resign over the recent terror attacks.
“What I want is for her to be held to account,” he said. “There are many very responsible people — fire service, police, many others — who are very concerned about how she performed as home secretary, presiding over 20,000 cuts to the police and the underfunding of the Prison Service.
“There are a lot of people who, in normal circumstances, if she was still home secretary, would be calling for her resignation. I’m just saying: hold her to account at the election on Thursday.”
Corbyn last night sought to maintain his campaign momentum with six simultaneous celebrity-packed rallies around the country, which he addressed by satellite link. Speaking from Birmingham to thousands of supporters in Glasgow, Barry, Brighton, London and Warrington, the Labour leader said: “While the Conservatives promise five more years of a country run for the super-rich and cuts for everyone else, Labour will transform Britain by investing in infrastructure and new industries and rebuilding the NHS and our public services. On Thursday, the British people will go to the polls and have the chance to vote for a government that will transform our country for the many, not the few.”
Earlier yesterday, Johnson was caught out on air when he criticised Corbyn for opposing anti-terror laws that he also voted against.
The Foreign Secretary used a series of morning interviews to counter criticism from Labour over security failings, saying it was “weird” for Corbyn to intervene as he had consistently opposed anti-terror laws. But BBC presenter Mishal Husain pointed out Johnson and May had opposed key terror laws, and Johnson voted against measures to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days in 2005.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott yesterday pulled out of two major election events due to illness amid criticism over her media appearances.
She was due to take part in a debate on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and a hustings organised by the London Evening Standard, but was replaced by Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry. Corbyn later said Abbott has done a “good job” in the shadow cabinet, but refused to commit to appointing her as Home Secretary.
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