Ex-chief prosecutor says Boris Johnson is ‘lying to us’ about the London attack

British PM Boris Johnson


Support us and go ad-free

A terror attack on London bridge left two people dead on 29 November. Now the former chief prosecutor for North West England Nazir Afzal is saying that both Boris Johnson and home secretary Priti Patel are lying to us about the issues surrounding the tragedy.

The corporate media also seems to be falsely suggesting that Corbyn wants to release terrorists early from prison. But his answer on Sky‘s Sophy Ridge was a lot more detailed.

“Both lying to us”

Afzal felt he had a duty to speak up:

 

Despite his party governing for nine years, Johnson spent his interview with Andrew Marr trying to blame Labour for the issues that may have led to the attack. Johnson’s lies include falsely claiming that a law introduced under Labour meant authorities had to release the offender early. In reality, the court of appeal made the decision and the law did not force them to.

In fact, Afzal had personally warned Johnson about letting radicalised prisoners go early without proper rehabilitation. Afzal said that the Tory leader:

asked me what keeps me awake at night and I told him it was this issue

When he wanted to know what to do about it, I told him it was more resources for one-to-one deradicalisation.

In response, Afzal says Johnson dismissed concerns about funding

Austerity in prisons

Speaking about Labour’s policy, before Johnson went on Marr, Corbyn said:

We would… properly fund our prison services… secondly that there be a psychological assessment of somebody in his situation before they are released to see if they are a danger… to society…

Our probation service – was half privatised – is not up to scratch.

Experts have widely condemned the Conservatives’ drastic cuts to prison services. This includes the underfunding of the rehabilitation process for prisoners. Research in 2016 established that 75% of UK inmates re-offend within nine years and over 39% within the first 12 months. Compare that to Norway – where the reoffending rate is just 20%.

Johnson “lying again”

But Johnson also failed to get even basic facts about the case right. He claimed judges sentenced Khan in 2010 when it happened in 2012. But perhaps his worse falsehood was Johnson lying that Corbyn wants to ‘disband MI5’. To make things worse, the BBC‘s Marr didn’t even challenge this blatant falsehood.

It goes beyond Johnson twisting the truth. And the former chief prosecutor’s comments highlight the gaps in Johnson’s version of events.

“Effective public services”

Corbyn, meanwhile, acknowledged the severity of this attack. On Sky, he said the police were right to shoot the attacker in this instance:

I think they had no choice. They were stuck with a situation where there was a credible threat of a bomb belt around his body… It’s an awful situation for any… public servant to be put in.

Corbyn also spoke about the matter further in York on 1 December:

We clearly need proper investment in our prison and probation services to stop tragedies like the London bridge attack happening again. Afzal, meanwhile, is right to step up and speak the truth. If Johnson cannot stop lying about an issue so serious, he should resign immediately. The man is not fit for high office.

Featured image via Boris Johnson/ WikiCommons

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us
  • Show Comments

    1. I believe most terrorist attacks are committed by MI5. The only Islamist attack I believe was real was the attack dubbed 21/7 which came a fortnight after 7/7. Four men were caught, one of whom escaped to Italy from where he was extradited. Before that the only attacks we faced were the London nail-bomb attacks committed by a far-right extremist, and before that it was attacks by the IRA.

      I believe every so-called Muslim attack apart from 21/7 was done by MI5. They must be reformed, they are incredibly dangerous to us, and as 7/7 proved sometimes they are extremely lethal.

      Report comment

      1. on account of their working together especially in Syria where as we now know the OPCW has come under deserved scrutiny, multi-agency operations have become more normalised rather than spooks in their own respective countries claiming their own fiefdoms as the case say 10 years ago…..the use of proxies has also become widespread. Nevertheless you are the first person to make these claims ….. i agree dirty hands are over many many “terror” attacks whilst the Left will make jokes about say the Skripal debacle but will run back to their comfort zones at the ist sigh of ridicule….. Im deeply concerned that another much larger attack is imminent and that the so-called Russia Report will be released and MI5 will have inserted there many lies about Corbyn ( who appears naive on these points but maybe is superclever) and Kremlin connections leaving all those 10,000s screaming for its publication looking entirely stupid.Corbyn has many enemies within Labour some of whom may have been sitting on the Parl Committee whilst there is no way Tories on that Committee would have challenged any evidence presented to it by MI5 OR MI6……naturally i hope this doesnt happen.You will recall that Pompeo told us Corbyn would not be allowed to win…… both Netanyahu and Trump will be in London next week….Our UK problem especially is our absence of fearless investigative journalism who dig into these matters and even our radical ones or more honst ones like Oborne serve up sanitisations with many respected names coopted…. theres surely way more to Abedi and the Manchester bombings than has been uncovered. Its entirely possible that recruitments are made and that they are then used as patsies or as martyrs – there is video possibly innocent of someone wiping down a knife used in recent London attack….unless these first post incident observations are quickly copied,they will always vanish within a few days as the sanitised version is sold to the public….

        Report comment

    Leave a Reply

    Join the conversation

    Please read our comment moderation policy here.

Related articles


TAGS: