Jeremy Corbyn’s controversial comments questioning the use of shoot to kill in terrorist attacks has led to a whole new round of criticisms — not least from his own MPs. But one of the most senior members of the shadow cabinet, Hilary Benn, spoke on the Today programme this morning to clarify that the Labour party’s policy has not changed:
‘Well I’m very clear that where there is an immediate threat to life — and the circumstances that those French forces faced when they went into the Bataclan concert hall on Friday night and there were the attackers there killing those attending the concert one by one — then long-established procedures say that it is perfectly reasonable in those circumstances to prevent further loss of life to use lethal force.
‘These are split second decision and the police and in certain circumstances the armed forces have to take but you have to protect people and our policy remains the same.’
The shadow foreign secretary did a good job of putting as much distance between himself and Corbyn as possible on shoot to kill.
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