Theresa May: Why I put armed police on our streets

The Prime Minister ordered the deployment of thousands of armed officers and soldiers on Britain's streets in the days after the Manchester terror attack.

Speaking on a visit to the Express & Star's offices in Queen Street, Wolverhampton, Mrs May defended her anti-terrorism record in the Home Office and attacked Jeremy Corbyn for not being tough on terror.

• Star Comment - May has manner for top office

She also said a new Commission for Countering Extremism, which was revealed as part of the Conservative manifesto, would help communities across the UK to stand up against terrorism.

Mrs May said the decision to deploy armed police in the Black Country for the first time 'di not come lightly' and added: "When we look at these incidents and respond to these incidents it is important as politicians that we give our police and our security services the operational freedom that they need and want to be able to take the decisions that they think are important for keeping people safe.

"Obviously as the investigation was ongoing the police felt that as we had gone to a critical threat level, which is the highest level we can go to and means a terrorist attack is potentially imminent, that a decision was needed to provide extra reassurance to people.

"This took place through armed police, and also by giving them support through the military, which has been an option that has been available for some time to the police."

The Prime Minister hit out at Mr Corbyn who she said had 'boasted that he has opposed anti-terror legislation throughout his time in Parliament'.

She defended her record on terrorism and said it was vital that Britain focused on a two pronged approach to combatting it, involving giving police and security services sufficient powers and stemming the tide of extremism.

"You just need to look at the record we have got in ensuring that our police and security services have the powers that they need," said Mrs May, who published a counter extremism strategy when she was Home Secretary.

"When I was Home Secretary I excluded more hate preachers than any Home Secretary before me. I booted one of or two out of the country.

"We put through the Investigatory Powers Act, we've given the police new powers to be able to deal with these issues.

"So it's about giving the police and security services the powers. But it is also about dealing with the extremism that can fuel radicalisation.

"That's why we will set up the Commission for Countering Extremism.

"We have already take a number of measures from the counter extremism strategy and now want to put this commission into place which would be working with the public sector and the private sector through community groups, better enabling them to better identify extremism and deal with it.

"But we also want them to be promoting British values and what it means to live here in the UK."

This election campaign has also seen Mrs May urge world leaders to do more to combat online extremism. She recently said that the fight against so-called Islamic State is 'moving from the battlefield to the internet'.

Mrs May has urged G7 leaders to work together to prevent online plotting of terrorist attacks and to stop the spread of extremist ideology.

She has argued that, as ISIS militants lose ground in the Middle East, the threat was 'evolving rather than disappearing' and that the industry had a 'social responsibility' to do more to take down harmful content, arguing it had taken some action but had not gone far enough.