Ross Clark Ross Clark

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech is a trap for the Tories

The most dangerous thing about Jeremy Corbyn’s speech today, blaming terror attacks in Britain on wars we have fought abroad, is that it is partly true. The temptation for the Conservatives will be to show outrage at the words: ‘Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home’ and to accuse Corbyn of exploiting the Manchester bombing for his own political gain. But they would be extremely foolish to do so because they will be unable to argue away the assertion that British military involvement in the Middle East has increased the risk of terror attacks at home.

Why was Madrid attacked by al-Qaeda in 2004 and London the following year, while no other European country was attacked at that time? Britain and Spain, of course, had been the two European countries which supported George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

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