STATEMENT FOLLOWING TERRORIST OUTRAGE IN LONDON

The indiscriminate attack on ordinary people in London on Saturday night was shocking and further evidence that the terrorist threat is real.

South Yorkshire Police have already assessed the situation and I will be meeting with senior officers tomorrow to be further updated. I have been assured today that there is no specific threat to us in South Yorkshire but as a precaution all community events and places where people gather in any numbers are being assessed and armed and unarmed officers are being deployed.

We live in a society that enables us to express our views and choose our political leaders freely and peaceably. The terrorists want to impose their views on us through violence. That is the difference between us and a reason why casting our votes in the General Election on Thursday is one of the most significant ways we can show our defiance and in the end defeat them.

We know that these attacks have the potential to set one part of our community against another. South Yorkshire Police are particularly alert to that, as are community and faith leaders, and every effort will be made to reassure and protect those who may feel anxious at this time.

Terrible though the events in London and Manchester have been, they have had the opposite effect from the one the attackers intended: they have brought our communities together; they have shown us what our core values are; and they have made us more determined than ever to live by them.