Sadiq Khan says election should go ahead to defy London attackers: 'Terrorists hate democracy'

A stabbing and van attack incident took place on London Bridge on Saturday night

The general election should go ahead as planned on Thursday despite the terror attack at London bridge on Saturday night, Sadiq Khan has said.

The Mayor of London said he “can understand why people don’t want to be canvassing and knocking on doors today” but that it was important the vote went ahead to show Britain would never be “cowed” by terror.

“One of the great things about our way of life is our democracy,” he said in a television interview on Sunday morning.

“Elections are a wonderful thing and that’s one of the things that these terrorists hate and one of the things that we can do to show we’re not going to be cowed is by voting on Thursday and making sure that we understand the importance of our democracy, our civil liberties, and our human rights.”

He continued: “I’m not an advocate of postponing the election. I’m a passionate believer in democracy and making sure that we vote and that we recognise that actually one of the things these terrorists hate is voting, they hate democracy, they hate elections, and the public choosing who should be our leaders rather than leaders being imposed on us. That’s why I’ll be voting on Thursday.”

The Conservatives this morning announced they had suspended national campaigning in the wake of the attack.

Normal political television programming, including the Andrew Marr Show, has also been taken off the air, replaced by rolling news.

The general election is scheduled for Thursday 8 June.

Six people were killed and at least 48 injured after terrorists drove a van into a crowd on London Bridge. Three suspects were shot by police after getting out of the van and stabbing people in nearby Borough Market.

Police say the men, who carried out the attack at around 10pm on Saturday evening, were wearing fake bomb vests.

Prime Minister Theresa May said last night's events were "dreadful", while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described the attack as "brutal and shocking".

The incident is the third attack on the UK in three months. A car and knife attack on Westminster in March left five people dead, while a bomb attack at a concert in Manchester two weeks ago killed 22.