Add Category
Posted
British police investigating the Manchester Arena bombing have arrested a ninth man while continuing to search addresses associated with the bomber who killed 22 concert-goers.
Key points:
- Police have not released name of latest person arrested
- Britain's opposition attacks Government over cuts to police force
- Security beefed up ahead of FA Cup final and public holiday
The latest arrest comes as Britain's major political parties resumed pre-election hostilities with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn planning to take on Theresa May over police cuts and arguing the war on terror has increased the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK.
Police have not released the name of any of the nine suspects so far arrested.
They continue to chase possible links between the bomber, Salman Abedi, and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East.
He was reportedly in contact with family members just before the attack.
After respectful detente, blame game erupts
Britain's political parties suspended campaigning for the June 8 election after the bombing at US singer Ariana Grande's Manchester concert.
But the gloves have come back off, with Mr Corbyn planning to announce his party will withdraw from the war on terror and boost police numbers by 10,000 while hammering May on her party's cuts to the force.
"No government can prevent every terrorist attack. If an individual is determined enough and callous enough sometimes they will get through," Mr Corbyn will say in a speech in London on Friday, according to extracts released to media.
"But the responsibility of government is to minimise that chance, to ensure the police have the resources they need, that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country, and that at home we never surrender the freedoms we have won and that terrorists are so determined to take away."
Security Minister Ben Wallace labelled Mr Corbyn "crass" and said his accusation that UK police were under-resourced was incorrect.
Government figures show the number of police officers dropped by 19,000 between 2010, when the Conservatives returned to power as part of a coalition, and 2016.
A British voter angrily confronted Interior Minister Amber Rudd over the cuts, prompting her to deny that the attack was linked to falling police numbers.
The exchange highlighted how police budgets were set to become a major issue as campaigning for a June 8 election resumes in earnest on Friday (local time).
"We're now 20,000 police officers down, and we get atrocities like this. Does the government not expect this?" the voter, who was not named, asked on the BBC's Question Time on Thursday night.
Ms Rudd said that counter terrorism was adequately resourced, and denied that the cuts had hindered the authorities' ability to prevent Monday's attack.
"I don't accept that ... we must not imply that this terrorist activity wouldn't have taken place if there had been more policing," she said.
Theresa May's Conservatives are well ahead in the opinion polls, but before the attack the lead had been halved in some polls and she was forced to backtrack on a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their social care.
Security forces on high alert
Emergency services were prepared for possible attacks on public events over an upcoming holiday weekend but had no information on specific threats, the Security Minister said.
Monday is a public holiday in Britain, and the weekend sees a number of high-profile events such as the soccer FA Cup final in London on Saturday.
Reports hospitals had been told to be prepared for the weekend were part of a general heightened sense of security and not a response to specific intelligence, Mr Wallace said.
"That is predominantly precautionary ... There is no specific threat against an individual event," he said on BBC radio.
AP/Reuters
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, foreign-affairs, security-intelligence, crime, terrorism, united-kingdom