General Election campaigning to remain suspended after Manchester terror attack

The party leaders’ campaigns for the June 8 General Election will remain suspended on Wednesday following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who visited Manchester and chaired two meetings of the emergency Cobra committee on Tuesday, will continue handling the response to the atrocity.

The campaigns of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrat counterpart Tim Farron, who both attended the vigil in Manchester after the attack, will also remain paused.

Mrs May spoke to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the hours after the bomb attack which killed 22 in Manchester, and agreed to put the contest on hold until further notice.

The two leaders are understood to have remained in regular contact about the situation, the worst terrorist incident ever during a general election period.

Mrs May cancelled a planned visit to the South West to chair Cobra before travelling to Manchester, while Mr Farron called off a campaigning trip to Gibraltar.

Labour confirmed its events planned for Wednesday had been cancelled.

“The Labour Party’s General Election campaign remains suspended until further notice,” a party spokesman said.

While the ceasefire in the national battle remains in place, low-key campaigning is set to resume at a local level with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats understood to have allowed candidates to decide on their positions.

Labour’s Mike Gapes, who hopes to return to Parliament in the Ilford South seat, said: “We must not allow murderous terrorists to undermine our democratic society. I will be resuming political campaigning tomorrow morning.”