The Manchester attack came in the final stretch of campaigning before a general election in Britain on June 8, and the country’s political parties agreed to suspend campaigning yesterday.

Opposition politicians — Mr Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party, Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats and Ms Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP) — joined Prime Minister Theresa May in expressing their grief and condolences. The SNP had been due to launch its manifesto yesterday but suspended the event.

It was unclear what effect the attack might have on the election. Some political experts suggested it would help Mrs May who, as home secretary, was in charge of Britain’s domestic security and is generally perceived as a tough leader.

But difficult questions are already being asked about what security gaps might have abetted the assault, and what could have been done to prevent it. Mrs May led a meeting of the government’s crisis response committee yesterday morning.

On Monday, she was forced to backtrack on one of her most striking election pledges to force elderly people to pay more for their social care after her party’s opinion poll lead halved in just a few days.

In her biggest misstep of the campaign so far, she had set out plans on Thursday to make some elderly people pay a greater share of their care costs, before hastily announcing on Monday there would be a limit.

Six opinion polls published in the past three days have all shown the Conservative Party’s lead over the opposition Labour Party narrow by between 2 and 9 percentage points, though all project that Mrs May will win the election. AGENCIES