Sunday shows: Corbyn on terror, Brexit, antisemitism and monarchy

Ridge on Sunday

Jeremy Corbyn talked about the terrorist attack, saying the police “had no choice” but to kill the perpetrator, as well as other issues from Brexit and antisemitism to the Royal Family.

On the London Bridge attack…

• On lessons to be learnt: “There has to be a very full investigation into the circumstances of the prison sentence that was served and the release from it and what services can do to help.”
• On whether people convicted of terrorism offences need to serve a full prison sentence: “I think it depends on the circumstances, it depends on the sentence but crucially depends on what they’ve done in prison.”
• So not necessarily then? “No, not necessarily, no. I think there has to be an examination of how our prison services work and crucially what happens to them on release from prison.”
• “There were apparently no probation service involvement in monitoring this former prisoner, who after all had only served half his sentence and he came out I think a year ago, and there has to be an examination of what goes on in the prison because prisons ought to be a place where people are put away because of major serious offences but also a place where rehabilitation takes place.”
• On what a Labour government would do: “One, properly fund our prison service so that the prison officers are able to do their job both as prison officers as well as educators as well as people that deal with dangerous prisoners who committed very dangerous, very serious offences.
• “Secondly, that there be a psychological assessment of somebody in his situation before they are released to see if they are actually a danger, an ever present danger to society, and that the Parole Board be involved in making that decision whether they go out ahead of full sentence and after that, we have a probation service worthy of the name.”
• On whether the police were right to shoot the terrorist dead: “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 and it’s an awful situation for any police officer, any public servant to be put in.”
• On whether he’s changed his mind on shoot-to-kill: “No… There was a concern in Northern Ireland that the police were adopting a shoot to kill policy when it was possible to arrest people rather than shoot them and that’s my point. There should never be the first alternative to shoot people but if there is no other alternative then that’s what you do.”

The police “had no choice” but to shoot London Bridge attacker Usman Khan says Jeremy Corbyn. #Ridge

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— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) December 1, 2019

On security and human rights…

• On the balance between security and human rights: “If you give up all your democratic and human rights, then you have actually given in to those that would take them away anyway.”
• Are you still concerned about the idea of stripping British people from their citizenship if they do go to fight for Jihadist causes abroad? “Yes, because if you strip away their citizenship, where are they going to go? They are then going to become stateless people roaming around into ungoverned places like in Libya, like in parts of Syria, and they create another terrorist force of tomorrow, ISIS or something else.”

On Brexit…

• Would you vote in a referendum? “Yeah.”
• Would you tell us at the time how you are going to vote? “You’ll have to wait and see.”
• On free movement: “I don’t think free movement totally could ever come to an end because of the relationship between families, between Britain and Europe, the needs of all of our services.”

On antisemitism…

• Why did you not take the opportunity to apologise? “We’ve made it very clear as a party that we apologise for and regret any degrees of antisemitism that anyone’s suffered.”
• Do you think you have done anything wrong when it comes to the handling of antisemitism? “I wished our party had acted on it more rapidly at the very beginning and dealt with it at that point.”
• “I pose no threat to any community whatsoever in this country.  I’ve spent my life fighting racism, fighting against racist attacks.”

On the royal family…

• On improvements to the monarchy: “I think the behaviour of individuals within the Royal Family is being looked at, shall we say? I do think the question of the size of the family and all that they do, but I do think the public as a whole would want to see those kind of changes and the debate around the behaviour of Prince Andrew has actually brought that to the fore.”
• You think it’s a bit too big, effectively? “I think there’s a lot of people attached to the Royal Family.”

Jeremy Corbyn says the size of the Royal Family should be looked at.

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— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) December 1, 2019