Jeremy Corbyn insists 'I never met the IRA' in grilling by BBC's Andrew Neil

'I didn’t support the IRA. I don’t support the IRA. What I want everywhere is a peace process'

Jeremy Corbyn has denied he ever met or supported the IRA, as he faced accusations that he failed to condemn a single atrocity carried out by the terrorist group.

The Labour leader faced his toughest grilling yet over his past links with militant Irish Republicans, as the Manchester bombing put the current terror threat at the heart of the election campaign.

Quizzed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil, Mr Corbyn was asked why the British people would wish to elect a Prime Minister with those links when “we live in an age of terrorism now”.

But a calm and relaxed Mr Corbyn replied: “I didn’t support the IRA. I don’t support the IRA. What I want everywhere is a peace process.”

Asked if he had ever urged the IRA to end its murderous campaign when he met its “front people”, he insisted: “I never met the IRA.

“I obviously did meet people from Sinn Fein, as indeed I met people from other organisations, and I always made the point that there had to be a dialogue and a peace process.”

The Labour leader was accused of having “basically supported the armed struggle for a united Ireland, but now you want to be Prime Minister you have to distance yourself from it”.

But he insisted: “No, what I want is peace. What I want is to learn the lessons from Northern Ireland.”

Mr Corbyn may face criticism for saying he had argued “the bombing process would never work” – but he later insisted he also believed “all deaths are wrong”.

During the interview, Mr Corbyn also:

* Defended his claim of a link between terror attacks and Britain’s foreign wars, by arguing they had created “ungoverned spaces, leaving people in a desperate situation, who themselves may become prey to that form of perversion”.

* Said the Manchester bomb was caused by “one person going into a music event and killing a very large number of people” – when asked if it was a “consequence of foreign policy”.

* Said he was making “no promises” to cut immigration, the level of which would be “based on the economic needs of our society”.

* Argued terrorism should be tackled by cutting off its funding and through a stronger presence in war-torn places such as Libya.

* Accepted he had called Nato “a very dangerous Frankenstein of an organisation’ and “a danger to world peace” – but insisted Labour would be “a committed member of that alliance”.

* Refused to say he supported the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent, but promised Labour would be “going ahead” with it.

* Denied Labour was planning “a massive spending binge”, insisting 95 per cent of people would not pay higher taxes.

On Trident, Mr Corbyn said: “My views on nuclear weapons are well-known. I want to achieve a nuclear free world through multilateral disarmament through the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.”

And on spending, he said: “This has to be the time that we stop making the poorest in our society pay the price of austerity and start investing for the future.

“What we’re proposing is an Investment Bank which will invest in all parts of this country, particularly those areas that have seen precious little investment.”

Mr Neil also asked “why should the voters trust you when so many even of your own MPs don’t trust you” – nearly a year after 180 of them passed a vote of no confidence in him – but Mr Corbyn insisted others “would say positive things”.