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Grieving husband criticises police on GMB after attack

Photo credit: PA Images
Photo credit: PA Images

From Digital Spy

A grieving husband has hit out at police following the Manchester terror attack.

Steve Howe, who lost his wife Alison on Monday (May 22), spoke on Good Morning Britain today about his devastating loss.

"I can't put into words what it's been like," he said. "I can't describe the pain. And I'm not a weak man. Enough is enough now. I've got to try and do something about what is happening if other people will help me.

"We need to be as extreme as [the terrorists] are. We need to get on it. The police knew the person who was responsible for this within 20 minutes. Why are we being so soft? We need to do something. We need to get something done and fight fire with fire. We need to stand up to the plate."

Steve then went on to criticise the officers involved in investigating the Manchester attack.

He continued: "Theresa May, give me your job for a few hours. Put me in charge of recruiting police officers. The police we have now... we've got to have common sense in the police force. That starts at the point of recruitment.

"The police we have now are not up to the job. We've got the military [helping] instead."

Steve claimed that it took a liaising officer some 18 hours to call at his house after his wife died.

He added: "That officer said to me he couldn't believe how pathetic the approach had been. He said that to me in private."

Photo credit: Facebook
Photo credit: Facebook

Colonel Richard Kemp, former head of Cobra, also appeared on the show to give his thoughts on the tragic events.

Echoing Steve's comments, he reiterated "enough is enough" and called on the government to come down harder on terrorists.

"There are 3,000 known jihadists walking the streets," he said. "No matter how good the police are, they cannot monitor all of them. The Manchester bomber was known to the police but the police have to prioritise who they are monitoring and sometimes, they get it wrong.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

"We need to help the police by removing as many of these people out of the country as we can. Every single person that we have intelligence on, who is known to be involved in terrorism, is not a UK citizen, and who we cannot prosecute in court, let's get rid of them out of this country. Let's deport them and send them back where they came from.

"We cannot allow them to roam freely on our street and allow them to murder and disfigure our children the way they did in Manchester."

Good Morning Britain is on ITV, weekdays at 6am.


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