British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday announced that the June 8 general election will go ahead as planned despite another terrorist attack in London as she blamed the "evil ideology of Islamist extremism" for the three terror attacks in the country.
Speaking outside Downing Street after she chaired the emergency COBRA meeting with senior security chiefs, May said said, "Violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process." There is no way to legally suspend or delay the general election following Saturday's terrorist attack at London Bridge, a senior Cabinet minister has said.
David Davis said in an interview on Sunday morning that any postponement would likely require a change in law – which would impossible while Parliament did not exist to enact it.
Seven people were killed and dozens injured in a van and knife attack on London Bridge and Borough Market at around 10pm on Saturday night.
Asked whether the election itself, scheduled for 8 June, could be postponed, Davis told the BBC: "I'm not sure it can be legally done. In order to do this you'd have to have some change of law I think, 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 Members of Parliament. "I think we're locked into June 8 and I think actually the public would want us to be locked into June 8."
The general election was delayed in 2001 due to the foot and mouth disease crisis. However, it had not been officially called at that point, and there were still MPs in Parliament. Davis echoed a statement by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who said the the continuation of Britain's democracy was the best way of showing defiance to terrorists.
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.
It is the third terror attack in the UK in three months, following the car and knife attack in Westminster in March, which left five people dead, and the Manchester bombing less than two weeks ago, in which 22 people were killed.