Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned British voters that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to “destroy” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that his party wants to abolish the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
Prime Minister Johnson made the comments on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference after a NATO plenary session. Leaders and representatives from 29 nations converged on the luxury hotel near Watford, England, to mark the 70th anniversary of the defence alliance.
While taking questions from the media, Mr Johnson remarked on the choices offered between his Conservatives and Corbyn’s Labour, not only in terms of Brexit but the future defence of the United Kingdom.
“There is a choice between those that want to strengthen NATO and those in the Labour Opposition that want to destroy NATO, the alliance that has kept us safe.
“I want to strengthen the MI5 that keeps us safe. Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party want to install a home secretary that wants to disband MI5.
“I want longer sentences for violent criminals and make sure criminals serve their full term. Mr Corbyn doesn’t agree with that.”
“The only plan that Jeremy Corbyn has, apart from destroying NATO, is to have two more referendums [on Brexit and Scottish secession] that would retard this country’s ability to develop, keep our economy in suspense, and keep our politics in total disarray,” the prime minister added.
The comments came the same day that Labour spokesman Barry Gardiner had accused the transatlantic alliance of engaging in “phoney defence” and “aggressive militarism”.
Earlier in the week in footage uncovered by The Sun, Jeremy Corbyn was revealed to have said in 2014 that he is “no fan of NATO. Indeed, I wish NATO didn’t exist.
“I am no fan of Western military alliances. Indeed, I wish they didn’t exist.”
The avowed socialist added that the defence alliance had been established “in order to promote a cold war with the Soviet Union”.
Britons go to the polls on December 12th. The latest polling from Savanta ComRes put the Conservatives at 42 per cent, ten points ahead of Labour. In terms of preference of prime minister, a recent Kantar poll put Johnson on 41 per cent, nearly 20 points ahead of Corbyn at 22 per cent, with polling aggregator Britain Elects remarking that “Corbyn on or above 20 per cent is slowly becoming the norm”.
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