When asked if he backed his claim about the conduct of special forces, Jenrick told activists in Birmingham: “I do". Speaking on stage at a conference event, Jenrick said human rights laws would make it “difficult” for British forces to “conduct a similar operation to the one that the United States did to kill or capture Osama bin Laden”.

Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly have criticised Robert Jenrick over his claim that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists” to prevent European judges setting them free.Mr Jenrick,

The Today programme host repeatedly pressed the Tory leadership candidate for details over his bizarre remark.

I'm extremely concerned that such words should not be seen in any way to encourage people to take any action other than surrender to British forces when asked to do so,” Tugendhat said. Cleverly said Jenrick should justify his claims.