Sadiq Khan on Streatham: "I'm angry about this predictable terror attack"
3 February 2020, 14:31
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told James O'Brien why he was so angry about this "predictable" terror attack.
James O'Brien spoke to London Mayor Sadiq Khan about the terror attack in south London on Sunday where a man was shot dead by armed police after two people were stabbed and another was injured.
Sadiq Khan said he was "angry" about the attack on Streatham High Street as the man responsible had been convicted of terrorist-related offences so "this was clearly an incident that was both preventable and predictable."
He said had it not been for the brilliance of the emergency services, or if the wounds being an inch either side of their impact, "we could be having a conversation today about a number of people having lost their lives as a consequence of terrorist attack that needn't have occurred."
James asked why, if the terrorist Sudesh Amman was sufficiently suspicious to be tailed by MI5, he was not suspicious enough to be kept in jail.
My statement on today's incident in #Streatham: pic.twitter.com/sDsJlVcyNq
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) February 2, 2020
The Mayor explained governmental changes in 2012 meant judges couldn't enforce the "indeterminate sentence to protect the public" and furthermore, due to prison cuts inmates are not being punished and reformed but in fact "further radicalised."
"The whole package of measures over the last ten years had led to a situation where a convicted terrorist within a week of being released being followed by armed officers but still causing the damage he caused yesterday," Mr Khan said.
He insisted this was not a retrospective accusation of the Conservative government but a chance to work together to prevent this tragedy from occurring again, including devoting more money to HM Prison Service to train prison guards to spot radicalised behaviour.
The London Mayor insisted that people can be de-radicalised but it takes "hard work, skilled staff" and significant funds - while this does mean more money channelled into prison services, the terror attack yesterday has cost the government "millions" in resources, he said.
