British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a statement at 10 Downing Street on Sunday, June 4, 2017, the morning after another terrorist attack in London. (Photo: Downing Street)

(CNSNews.com) – Less than a day after terrorists killed seven people in London, Britain’s left-wing opposition leader waded into Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday night, accusing her – four days before a general election – of trying to protect the country “on the cheap.”

“You cannot protect the public on the cheap,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a speech in northern England. “The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts.”

Recalling a spat two years ago between May – in her previous post of home secretary – and an organization representing rank and file police officers in the U.K., Corbyn declared, “Theresa May was warned by the Police Federation, but she accused them of ‘crying wolf.’”

In Saturday night’s attack three men rammed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge then stabbed others enjoying a night out in a popular food and drink market, before being shot dead by armed police.

In addition to the seven fatalities, 48 people were injured – including off-duty police officers who tried to stop the attackers, one using a baton, another by rugby-tackling one of the terrorists.

As has become the norm, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack, which came less than a fortnight after 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing – also claimed by ISIS -- at a music venue in Manchester.

Following the London attack, the Conservative and Labour parties agreed to suspend until Sunday night campaigning for Thursday’s general election.

But when May then delivered a statement on the bombing at 10 Downing Street, some accused her of breaking the agreed-on suspension.

May called for steps to counter the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division and promotes sectarianism”; a clampdown on the use of the Internet for spreading extremist ideas and planning attacks; moves to prevent the growth of segregated communities; and ensuring that the police and security services have the powers they need.

She warned that there had been “far too much tolerance of extremism” in Britain, said it was “time to say ‘enough is enough,’” and concluded by calling on the country to unite in taking on and defeating “our enemies.”

May’s hard-hitting statement did not refer directly or criticize other parties’ positions, but critics said she was effectively campaigning by proposing counter-terror measures which other parties would not necessarily embrace.

“She is offering a series of measures which can only be brought forward after 8 June if enough people vote for the Conservatives,” wrote one commentator in left-leaning New Statesman.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, told BBC radio that she regretted the approach May had taken, saying that what the prime minister was proposing was “drawing us into a [political] debate.”

“I don’t think it’s right to get dragged into plans at this stage, so soon after the attacks,” she said. “I don’t think that anything she’s proposing is anything that needs to be, or will be, dealt with tomorrow,” she said.

“To come out on to the steps of 10 Downing Street immediately in the aftermath of a terrible outrage like this was not something that would be expected,” Thornberry added.

‘Scaremongering’

In his speech in Carlisle hours later, Corbyn said, “Our priority must be public safety and I will take whatever action is necessary and effective to protect the security of our people and our country.”

“That includes full authority for the police to use whatever force is necessary to protect and save life as they did last night, as they did [after a similar attack] in Westminster in March."

Corbyn then criticized May over police numbers, recalling complaints in 2015 by the Police Federation.

At its annual conference that year, federation chairman Steve White said that visible neighborhood policing – the iconic bobby on the beat – was becoming an “endangered species.”

When she addressed the same event, May said the federation’s leaders were “crying wolf” and “scaremongering” at a time when statistics showed that crime prevalence was actually falling. At the time, she was minister in charge of policing.

At this year’s Police Federation conference last month, White urged whoever forms the next government to make policing a priority.

“Politics and politicians will move on, but policing, its officers and people’s safety will always be needed – no matter who is in government,” he said.

“It is a crisis that we don’t have enough police officers to deal with the demands placed upon the service,” White said, “and that should be very worrying for government, whose primary responsibility is the safety and security of its citizens.”

After a terrorist detonated a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester a week later, a government plan for troops to be deployed to assist police in key locations in the aftermath of a terrorist attack was implemented for the first time.

White said at the time that police welcomed the support of soldiers “to free up armed officers,” but added that “we cannot avoid the reasons it is needed at all.”

“There is no ignoring the fact that we, the police, simply do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own,” he said.