On a rainy Monday evening, on the muddy banks of the Tyne, 10,000 people gathered to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak. The mood was optimistic and jubilant just three days ahead of the General Election, and a sense of the historic opportunity that lies ahead of us was not missed on the crowd.

A terrorist attack in London left seven people dead last night, after three terrorists drove a van at high speed onto pedestrians in the south side of London Bridge, and then proceeded to stab multiple people before they were killed by armed police. National campaigning for the election on June 8 has been suspended today, and there have been some calls for the election itself to be postponed. We wholeheartedly condemn this attack, which as well as killing innocents only serves to fuel racism and provide a justification for imperialist adventures and attacks on civil liberties.

If there is one thing you can be certain about in any UK election, it is that the vast majority of the press will be hostile to Labour. The likes of the Times, Daily Mail and (of course) the Sun will claim to be “fair-minded” and “considered”, etc. before announcing yet again that they are backing the Tories. The current election is no exception to this rule.

The sudden rise of Labour in the polls following the manifesto leak - and the decline in support for the Tories following a litany of PR-disasters and U-turns - has lead to panic in ruling class circles and demand for a new strategy. This new strategy is to send the smear campaign against Corbyn into overdrive, as aptly demonstrated by the Evening Standard headline, "Tories tear into Jeremy Corbyn after Labour buoyed by polls boost".

Jeremy Corbyn returned to campaigning for the general election last Friday with a speech that offered a response to the appalling Manchester terrorist atrocity and that sought to draw a clear line underneath the failed “war on terror”.

Twenty-two people have been killed and 59 injured in the most deadly terrorist attack on British soil since the London 7/7 bombings. The attack on a pop concert at the Manchester Arena, carried out by a lone suicide bomber, was deliberately timed to strike as thousands of people, including many children, began to leave the venue at 22:35. A number of children and teenagers are already known to be among the dead and missing.