British election campaign resumes after London attack with Prime Minister Theresa May under fire over police cutbacks

Her main opponent, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, backed calls for her resignation over the police cuts

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British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a general election campaign visit to a removals depot in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 5, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital. / AFP PHOTO / POOL AND AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL

Published: 11:00pm, 5 Jun 2017Updated: 11:02pm, 5 Jun 2017

Britain’s election campaign resumed in earnest on Monday with Prime Minister Theresa May’s opinion poll lead narrowing and the focus firmly on her security record after an attack by marauding jihadists killed seven people in the heart of London.

In Britain’s third Islamist attack in as many months, three men rammed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge on Saturday night before running into the bustling Borough Market area, where they slit throats and stabbed people indiscriminately.

With the attack dominating attention, a reduction in the number of police officers in England and Wales by almost 20,000 during May’s six years as interior minister from 2010 to 2016 shot to the top of the election agenda.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, of the opposition Labour Party, was among those who raised the issue.

“It’s just a fact that, over the last seven years, we as a city have lost £600 million from our budgets. We have had to close police stations, sell police buildings, and we’ve lost thousands of police staff,” he said.

We have had to close police stations, sell police buildings, and we’ve lost thousands of police staff

Sadiq Khan, London mayor

Khan, the first Muslim to be elected mayor of a major Western European city, was among those who denounced the ideology behind the recent attacks.