Boris Johnson points out Jeremy Corbyn supported the IRA for FOUR DECADES

Boris Johnson has used Jeremy Corbyn’s longstanding support for the IRA to undermine the Labour leader’s security credentials as the race for Number 10 enters the home stretch.

In a fiery exchange at Friday’s BBC head-to-head in Maidstone, the PM used a question about the Union to dredge up his rival’s sympathies with the terrorist nationalists. 

He said: ‘I do find it slightly curious to be lectured about the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland by a man who all his political life has campaigned to break up that Union and who supported for four decades the IRA in their campaign violently to destroy it. I must say I find it a curiosity.’

Mr Johnson’s blistering attack prompted thunderous applause from the studio audience, who were otherwise relatively muted during the hour-long programme. 

Mr Corbyn, who has been dogged by his relationships with the IRA since he became leader in 2015, deflected by veering the conversation on to Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal.

But he was later forced to rubbish one of the Tories’ central attack lines that he wants to scrap the intelligence services.

The Labour leader said: ‘There are no plans to disband MI5.’

In light of last week’s London Bridge terror attack, questions of security continued to rage throughout the debate and provoked heated confrontations in the battle for Number 10.   

The PM and the Labour leader are facing off in the final head-to-head of the campaign, in front of a primetime Friday night audience on BBC One

Jeremy Corbyn with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, which evolved out of the IRA

Jeremy Corbyn with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, which evolved out of the IRA

When the leaders were asked about balancing the needs of security against human rights against in the wake of last Friday’s terrorism, Mr Corbyn said: ‘What happened on the streets of London was utterly appalling and I very moved by what Jack Merritt’s father said about what his son was trying to do.

‘That he wanted a society where you did address the huge problems where somebody committed awful acts, of course, you must imprison them of course you try and rehabilitate them if you can.’

Mr Johnson said: ‘I have huge sympathy for Mr Merritt and the … families of both victims and it was an absolutely terrible thing.

‘But I still think it’s wrong that someone like Usman Khan who was sentenced 21 years or 16 years plus five on licence should have been out automatically on eight years.’   

In front of a primetime Friday night audience on BBC One, the PM urged the public to back his EU deal to ‘unlock the potential’ of the UK, saying £150billion of investment is waiting in the wings. 

He ridiculed Labour’s muddled position of renegotiating with Brussels and holding another referendum, but with Mr Corbyn staying neutral. ‘You cannot negotiate a deal if you are neutral on it… it’s a failure of leadership on the biggest issue facing this country at the moment,’ he said.

The veteran left-winger was also pressed over Labour’s plans to introduce a four-day week in the NHS, and failed to deny that he wants to ‘overthrow capitalism’. 

But he insisted he was putting forward an ‘ambitious’ programme that could end child poverty, as he desperately to turn the tide as polls continue to show the Tories ahead.  

Ipsos MORI research earlier found Labour has been making up some ground over the past three weeks, with its support increasing four points. But the Conservatives still have a 12-point lead, which would be enough for a comfortable majority. 

Mr Corbyn

Mr Johnson

Mr Corbyn said he wanted to ‘help the many not the few’ while Mr Johnson said the country needed to ‘move on’ and get Brexit done

As the pair traded blows on Brexit, Mr Johnson said: ‘Who is going to negotiate it? Because as far as I can see everyone on the Labour frontbench … is campaigning for Remain apart from Mr Corbyn who is neutral on the matter,’ Mr Johnson said. ‘How can you get a new deal from Brussels if you don’t really believe in it?’ 

Mr Johnson wants a trade deal with the US which would take ‘seven years’ to negotiate. 

Mr Corbyn said: ‘He knows he can’t get a deal quickly with the USA because of the way in which the US political system works. ‘And so what he will do is walk out of a relationship with the EU into a relationship with nobody.’ 

The PM warned that Labour governments always went out of power with a crisis – but he said Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell would trigger one immediately. 

Mr Corbyn said he wanted ‘Socialism carried out in a democratic way in this country’ to raise living standards.

But Mr Johnson shot back: ‘I would say it is one-nation Conservatism, which understands the vital importance of a dynamic market economy as the only way in which you can pay for fantastic public services and for looking after the poorest and neediest in our society…

‘To attack capitalism as Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell do is absolutely senseless.’ 

Asked if he thought Mr Corbyn ‘wanted to destroy capitalism’, the PM said: ‘John McDonnell, who is the shadow chancellor, and some would say the intellectual driving force this type of plio-socialism, is committed, he says, to fermenting the overthrow of capitalism. I think that is a mistake. ‘I don’t think that is the right way forward for our country.’

Mr Corbyn replied: ‘My kind of socialism is one where you don’t leave people behind, you don’t ignore the fact that four million of our children are living in poverty, you don’t ignore the fact that you have thousands of people sleeping on the streets of this country – the fifth richest country in the world. The inequality has got worse.’

Earlier, Mr Corbyn launched another frantic effort to bridge the gap, staging another ‘reveal’ of a leaked document, which he claimed showed Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal would put up barriers between the mainland and Northern Ireland

However, Mr Johnson flatly dismissed the claim, saying the UK would leave the EU ‘whole and entire’.

And he went on the attack by ridiculing the Labour leader’s extraordinary policy of calling a second referendum but refusing to say whether he wanted to leave the bloc.  

The leaders were seen as having battled effectively to a standstill in their previous ITV showdown, although the PM managed to hammer home his key message on Brexit. 

The 100-strong audience in Maidstone tonight has been selected to include equal numbers of Conservative and Labour supporters, as well as a smattering of backers of other parties and undecideds.

There will be slightly more Leave voters than Remain in the audience, reflecting the result of the 2016 referendum. Some of the audience was too young to have voted three years ago. 

They will ask questions and Robinson will also pose some that have been submitted online. 

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson has been facing criticism for ducking an interview with veteran BBC interrogator Andrew Neil. 

In a scathing video that has received millions of views online, Neil pointed out that all the other main party leaders had agreed to be quizzed, with Jeremy Corbyn suffering a disastrous mauling over Labour anti-Semitism and his manifesto spending splurge.

Staring straight down the camera, he said: ‘The Prime Minister of our nation will at times have to stand up to President Trump, President Putin, President Xi of China. 

‘So we’re surely not expecting too much that he spend half an hour standing up to me.’ 

But a senior Tory source gave the strongest hint yet that Mr Johnson will snub the challenge, saying voters were fed up with programmes that were ‘all about the interviewer’ and involved ‘endless interruptions’.

Who is in the audience for the BBC debate? 

The 100-strong audience in Maidstone tonight has been selected to include equal numbers of Conservative and Labour supporters, as well as a smattering of backers of other parties and undecideds.

There will be slightly more Leave voters than Remain in the audience, reflecting the result of the 2016 referendum. Some of the audience was too young to have voted three years ago. 

They will ask questions and Robinson will also pose some that have been submitted online. 

Mr Johnson himself insisted he ‘couldn’t accommodate everybody’ – joking that he was also having to turn down a debate with ‘Lord Buckethead’.  

‘As I say, I think most people would say, I think I’m the only Prime Minister to have done not one, but by tonight two head-to-head debates,’ he said on a visit to Kent. 

‘I’ve done 118 sitdown interviews with journalists, I’ve fielded innumerable questions … we cannot accommodate everybody. 

‘There’s a guy called Lord Buckethead who wants to have a head-to-head debate with me. Unfortunately I’m not able to fit him in. You know, we can’t do absolutely everything.’ 

As the campaign turned increasingly nasty, Channel 4 is embroiled in a bias row after wrongly captioning a video of Boris Johnson with subtitles referring to the race of immigrants.

Mr Johnson made a speech yesterday in which he said new immigration controls would ensure ‘people of talent’ still come to Britain.

But in the broadcaster’s subtitles of the speech, the phrase was changed to become ‘people of colour’, with the video then being shared widely online by people insisting the wrongly-reported comments were racist.

The channel today apologised for the mistake, saying: ‘Boris Johnson says ‘people of talent’ not ‘people of colour’. Our earlier tweet was a mistake. We misheard and we apologise.’

But senior Conservatives accused the channel of trying to smear the Prime Minister. Party chairman James Cleverly tweeted: ‘Boris has used the phrase ‘people of talent’ many times during this election campaign in relation to our points based immigration policy.’ 

There was a boost for the Tories today as a YouGov poll for the Times put the party up eight points in Scotland since August, at 28 per cent. 

Labour is stuck on 15 per cent – but they are all way behind the SNP on 44 per cent..

The Liberal Democrats were on 12 per cent.

According to projections by polling expert Sir John Curtice, this would see the number of SNP MPs increase from 35 to 46.

Writing in the Times, he said: ‘Most of the seats being defended by the Conservatives are highly marginal.

‘Consequently, even if the party retains all the support it won in 2017, it could still lose a significant number of seats if, as our poll suggests, support for the SNP increases.’

The analysis suggests the Conservatives would secure eight seats in Scotland, the Liberal Democrats four and Labour one. 

Boris Johnson (pictured arriving in Maidstone tonight) appealed for voters to 'get Britain out of neutral' today as a dramatic poll showed the election battle has narrowed

Boris Johnson (pictured arriving in Maidstone tonight) appealed for voters to ‘get Britain out of neutral’ today as a dramatic poll showed the election battle has narrowed

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured arriving for the BBC debate in Maidstone tonight) is frantically trying to close the gap on the Tories

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured arriving for the BBC debate in Maidstone tonight) is frantically trying to close the gap on the Tories

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

Barry Gardiner

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (left) and shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner (right) are on hand to spin for the Tories and Labour respectively

Ipsos MORI research found Labour has been making up some ground on the Tories over the past fortnight - with support increasing four points

Ipsos MORI research found Labour has been making up some ground on the Tories over the past fortnight – with support increasing four points