Calls for the election to be suspended after London Bridge attack

Call off the election! Social media users call for vote to be postponed to ‘prioritise the safety of the country’ but government insists the polls WILL go ahead

• At least seven people are feared dead following the attack on Saturday night
• Petition has called for the election to be suspended ‘for the foreseeable future’
• Prime Minister is chairing emergency response committee meeting this morning
• Tory campaign was suspended for the day this morning during the response
• Labour has suspended its own national election campaigning until tonight 

The general election will go ahead on Thursday despite some public calls for a postponement because Britain is ‘locked in’, David Davis said today.

The Brexit Secretary said he believed the public would want the poll to go ahead undeterred by the terrorist attack, which killed seven and left 48 injured.

Prime Minister Theresa May officially confirmed the election would proceed as planned in a major address from Downing Street after convening the emergency committee.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick today urged people to carry on with this ‘normal lives’ and not to ‘overreact’.

Three terrorists crashed a van on the south side of London Bridge at 10.08pm last night before going on a rampage into Borough Market. They were killed by armed officers within eight minutes.

A petition calling for the election to be halted was posted in the minutes after the attack and it was backed by a number of social media users.

The political parties this morning called a pause to national general election campaigning but local candidates are expected to press on with their work.

Mr Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr today the suspension would be ‘relatively brief’ and warned the attacks could have been aimed at the election.

But he said: ‘I think we are locked into June 8. I think the public would want us to be locked into June 8.

There is a balance here… the people doing this because they despise the freedoms we have.’

The attack comes less than two weeks after 22 people were killed by suicide bomber Salman Abedi at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Brexit Secretary David Davis (pictured speaking to Andrew Marr today) said the country was ‘locked in’ to Thursday’s general election

Six people are dead after three men with 12-inch hunting knives reportedly stabbed revellers after mowing down up to 20 people with a white van on London Bridge

A petition calling for the election to be halted was posted in the minutes after the attack and it was backed by a number of social media users 

Asked if the election could or should be halted, Mr Davis told Marr: ‘I’m not sure it can be legally done. In order to do this, you’d have to have some change in the law and who’s going to do that?

‘Parliament no longer exists. I’m not a Member of Parliament for the duration, as are none of the other people who were MPs.’

Mr Davis said he thought that the election was ‘locked in’ to the scheduled date, and that the public would want that to remain the case.

Mr Davis said it ‘may well be’ that the attacks were intended to disrupt the election, adding: ‘In which case, all the more reason not to defer, not to deflect, to as far as possible within the bounds of propriety to not let this pull us off course.’

Speaking in Downing Street, Mrs May said: ‘As a mark of respect two political parties have suspended our national campaigns for today, but violence must never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.

‘So those campaigns will resume in full tomorrow and the general election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.

‘As a country our response must be as it has always been when we have been confronted by violence.

‘We must come together, we must pull together and united we will take on and defeat our enemies.’

Prime Minister Theresa May officially confirmed the election would proceed as planned in a major address from Downing Street after convening the emergency committee

The Prime Minister said the three attacks in the past three months were not directly connected but were linked by the ‘the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism’

Ms Dick condemned the atrocity as ‘appalling’ and ‘ghastly’.

She said police believe there were three attackers and that all had been ‘neutralised’

Confirming the suspension of campaigning, a Tory spokesman said: ‘The Conservative party will not be campaigning nationally today.

‘We will review as the day goes on and as more details of the attack emerge.’

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn thanked emergency service staff for their response and added: ‘The Labour party will be suspending national campaigning until this evening, after consultations with other parties, as a mark of respect for those who have died and suffered injury.

‘Those who wish to harm our people, divide our communities and attack our democracy will not succeed.

‘We will stand together to defend our common values of solidarity, humanity and justice, and will not allow terrorists to derail our democratic process.’

The national campaigns for the Liberal Democrats and SNP were also suspended for the day. Candidates for all parties are expected to continue local campaigns.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick (pictured at New Scotland Yard today) urged people to carry on with this ‘normal lives’ and not to ‘overreact’

In a further halt to political hostilities, the BBC’s flagship political programme The Andrew Marr Show was cancelled.

On Sky News, the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme aired but with a heavily modified show.  ITV’s Peston on Sunday broadly went ahead as planned.

Mark Oxley posted the petition calling for the suspension of the election on Change.org.

It said: ‘I and I’m quite sure a high percentage of the UK population agree that now is not the time to have a general election, after a second devastating attack I believe it is time to prioritise the safety of our country and its people, that’s why I ask you to call off the general election for the foreseeable future.’

It is in its very early stages with few signatures though several Twitter users have made similar calls.

One wrote: ‘Would be ideal to Suspend the Election can’t have the risk of there being a transition in government in the middle of this.’

Another said: ‘Never ever thought I’d say this. I think they need to call off the election. We need all concentration on this issue.’

And one user wrote: ‘Now is not the time for a general election. Just what the perpetrators want, uncertainty, unrest. Call it off!!’

Calling the election off would be extremely difficult legally. Thousands of votes have already been cast by post.

Theresa May (pictured campaigning yesterday in Yorkshire) has suspended the national Conservative campaign ahead of Thursday’s election 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on the trail in Nottinghamshire yesterday) is thought likely to match the move shortly 

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was ‘appalled and furious’ at the targeting of London.

He said: ‘This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night.

‘I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.’

The London Mayor said officers were on the scene within two minutes and the attackers were dead after eight minutes.

Mr Khan said he believed the election should go ahead as scheduled.

He said: ‘I’ll be voting on Thursday. It’s important we do all we can to make sure we are safe.

‘I am a passionate believer in democracy.’

Home Secretary Amber Rudd told ITV’s Peston on Sunday it was the right decision to suspend campaigning after the attack but insisted the election should go ahead as planned.

She said: ‘They are out to attack our values, our way of life, our democracy, our freedoms and it would be wrong to knock any of those in this period now and I think everybody I speak to is absolutely clear, they want the election to go ahead on Thursday.’

Ms Rudd renewed calls for internet giants to tackle extremist material online and limit end-to-end encryption in the wake of the attack.

However she also pledged to ‘take the politics out of security’ in the final days of the campaign, adding: ‘We will be very plain vanilla about making sure there is no political point-scoring as we go about trying to keep people safe.’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, pictured, described last night’s attack as a ‘deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night’ 

Met assistant commissioner Mark Rowley arrived in Downing Street today ahead of an emergency committee meeting with Theresa May 

Flags over Downing Street were lowered to half mast this morning in the aftermath of the attack (pictured) 

Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency response committee later this morning.

A spokesman for May says the prime minister is in contact with officials and is being regularly updated.

‘Our thoughts are with those who are caught up in these dreadful events,’ the Prime Minister said in a statement.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: ‘Tonight’s horrific incidents in London remind us how much we owe our emergency services. My thoughts and prayers with everyone affected.’

Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘Dreadful news from London. My thoughts are with all those affected.’

Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood said: ‘This is another devastating attack. Plaid Cymru extends its condolences to the people affected and the emergency services that work so hard in these difficult circumstances. People deserve to live their lives without fear, and we must come together to reject hate.’

Twitter user Amanda Eliasch said Britain was ‘at war’ and the election should be stopped  

Caz said calling off the election would allow politicians to work together against the terror threat 

Melanie Green had a similar messages, insisting ‘our politicians need to stand together at times like these’ 

Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: ‘I hope this leads to more people voting in the gen election and respecting the fact that politicians do very difficult jobs.’

The Union flag was flying at half mast over Downing Street as ministers and security chiefs gathered for the Cobra meeting, at which they were expected to hear an expert assessment of whether the UK’s terror threat level should be returned to ‘critical’ – meaning further attacks could be imminent.

Also present at the meeting were Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, along with representatives of police and security and intelligence agencies.