JEREMY CORBYN warned: “You can’t keep people safe on the cheap” yesterday, arguing that austerity has damaged Britain’s ability to stop terrorist attacks.

The Labour leader said cuts to public services had led to authorities struggling to effectively tackle terrorism and extremism.

His intervention comes after a suspected Islamist attack on London Bridge killed two people on Friday.

Speaking at a rally in York, Mr Corbyn criticised the lack of funding for community policing and services for mental health, youth and probation services.

He said: “When those public services are cut back, as they have been during the past decade, they leave behind gaps.

“That can lead to missed chances to intervene in the lives of people who go on to commit inexcusable acts, whether it’s during their childhood, their first brush with the law, their first conviction or in prison through rehabilitation programmes.”

Mr Corbyn claimed that the part-privatisation of the probation service in 2014 has ended in “disaster,” and said that it had “badly undermined” the justice system.

“A failure to recruit has left huge staffing shortfalls, with staff supervising more cases than ever expected, posing a serious risk to our security,” he said.

“You can’t keep people safe on the cheap.”

Mr Corbyn’s intervention comes after former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal claimed he had personally warned Boris Johnson that serious security risks could have been created by freeing terrorists who had not been deradicalised.

However, he says was told by the Prime Minister there was “no money” for prison services.

An urgent review of terrorists released from prison has been launched after the knife attack by convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed two former University of Cambridge students.

The 28-year-old, who was released halfway through his 16-year sentence, fatally stabbed 25-year-old Jack Merritt and another Cambridge alumnus who has yet to be named.

The attack on Friday afternoon left three other people injured, one of whom was a member of staff, the university’s vice-chancellor Stephen Toope said.

Khan was on licence and wearing an electronic monitoring tag when he attended a conference on prisoner rehabilitation hosted by Cambridge University scheme Learning Together at Fishmongers’ Hall near London Bridge.

The attack has prompted the Ministry of Justice to review the licence conditions of every convicted terrorist released from prison, which Mr Johnson says is “probably about 74” people.