Corbyn: Military Needs More Ships, Aircraft, Funding & Personnel

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he would sign off on more ships for the Royal Navy, extra surveillance aircraft for the RAF and greater funding and numbers for the armed services and police.

The Labour leader promised to protect Britain from global threats after facing criticism for refusing to say whether he would launch a retaliatory nuclear strike.

After hosting a roundtable with pensioners in Lincoln, Mr Corbyn was asked if he would keep the British people safe as prime minister. He replied:

"We will protect the people of this country from any threat that they face anywhere in the world.

"We will invest properly in our police service, we will invest properly in our armed services. The numbers in the armed services have gone down, the Navy are crying out for more ships, the Air Force are crying out for more surveillance aircraft. We would fund them properly to achieve all of that."

"We would also face up to the terrible danger of cyber attacks against our society, look what happened to the NHS only two weeks ago, and we will deal with the issue of the terrorist threat which is obviously appalling.

"What happened in Manchester was dreadful beyond belief, the way you deal with that is putting more police on the streets - we will put 10,000 more police on the streets, the Conservatives are taking 20,000 off the streets.

"We will fund the security services to monitor people and protect them, but also our strategy is to bring communities together."

Mr Corbyn came under tough interrogation over his attitude to nuclear weapons during Friday's BBC Question Time leaders special.

He has faced repeated questions over his commitment to renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent, which Labour backs, after he lost an internal party debate on the issue.

Mr Corbyn also repeated his vow to pursue a foreign policy aimed at addressing the issue of "ungoverned spaces" in war-torn countries like Libya where extremism can flourish.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the Press Association:

"I thought it was really spine-chilling to hear Jeremy Corbyn announce that all Labour's support for our nuclear deterrent, all Labour's support for our Armed Forces, was completely meaningless because when it came to the business of defending this country he wouldn't do it."

Cover image courtesy of Paul New.