Prime Minister Theresa May - who has returned from the G7 summit meeting in Sicily - is this morning chairing a meeting of the COBRA Cabinet committee to discuss recent security developments in the aftermath of the Manchester terrorist attack.

Image source, Getty Images

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has called for a review of police funding after the general election, suggesting that the public would be prepared to pay more to boost numbers.

Mr Burnham said: "We cannot look at a falling tide of police funding at a time when there is not just the terrorist threat but also cyber-fraud and hate crime. It has to stop....The feeling in Greater Manchester now is that police visibility has noticeably dipped."

Speaking to the Times, Mr Burnham said: "We have to have a review now of police funding. It's time for honesty about that. If you said to the public 'Pay a little bit more for police and the NHS', they would accept that. If we don't, we are less safe."

Image source, Liberal Democrats

The Lib Dem pun department has been hard at work to come up with their latest digital attack ad on Theresa May's plans to axe free school meals for all infants in English primary schools.

Nick Clegg is furious that one of his signature policies from the coalition years will be dumped if Mrs May wins on 8 June.

He says Mrs May "should take her inspiration from Jamie Oliver not Oliver Twist" (the celebriy chef has branded the Conservative plans a "disgrace").

The Conservative plan is to replace free lunches for infants with free breakfasts for all primary children but, say the Lib Dems, there are no guidelines on minimum portions for breakfasts.

This means, the party says, that while pupils currently get at least two to three of their five a day with free lunches, with free breakfasts they could potentially get none.

Theresa May has returned from her trip to Europe to this week's NATO and G7 summits but the Conservatives are not expected to undertake any specific national campaigning events this weekend.

Jeremy Corbyn is visiting a community football event in London today, highlighting his party's manifesto pledge to boost funding for grassroots football ahead of the FA Cup Final.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron is on the campaign trail in Cumbria.

Green Party co-leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley will be joined by party activists in the south-west of England.

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall will be campaigning in Lincolnshire. And the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon is campaigning north of Glasgow this afternoon.

The Conservatives have dismissed Labour's plans to provide more money to grassroots football as "nonsensical", saying that more money is going into grassroots football than ever before, thanks to investment already earmarked by the Conservatives in government.

A spokesman highlighted a deal they agreed with the Premier League to put "at least £100m a year" directly into the game at the lowest levels.

"It is worrying that a man with such a poor grasp of the facts could be prime minister in less than two weeks time. If he can't get something like this right, just think what a mess he would make of the Brexit negotiations".

Labour is using today - FA Cup Final day - to commit a future government to developing a "flexible football ticket" to help fans travel to matches which are moved for television coverage with minimum disruption.

The party says it will work with train operators, broadcasters and football clubs to stop fans being left with train tickets they cannot use after fixture changes.

Jeremy Corbyn - a long-time supporter of one of today's cup finalists Arsenal - is also using the occasion today to highlight Labour's manifesto commitment to ensuring 5% of the Premier League's domestic and international television rights income is diverted to the grassroots game.

On a campaign visit later today the Labour leader will pledge to make football "a game for the many, not the few", before travelling to Wembley the final, which sees his team take on Chelsea.

The Conservatives have called Mr Corbyn's football ticket plans "nonsensical".

Welcome back to our live coverage of General Election 2017 on this, the penultimate weekend of campaigning before polling day.

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

This was a speech that was always going to be controversial - even more so in the aftermath of an atrocity like Manchester - and after promises of a restrained and low key re-start to the election campaign.

Jeremy Corbyn began by holding a minute's silence. He also urged people not to impugn his patriotism or doubt his determination to defend Britain. However, he set out a very different approach to tackling terrorism.

British troops, he said, would only be deployed abroad when there was a clear need; a plan, the resources and when the outcome would deliver lasting peace.

He also indicated a readiness to talk to the UK's enemies. Almost all conflicts end, he said, by talking to those with whom one profoundly disagrees.

And, said Mr Corbyn, politicians should accept the war on terror had failed and fuelled the threat the country faced.

The Labour leader's aides insisted he was not seeking to score political points; or calling for talks with IS. But what he did say provoked a ferocious backlash.

This was the first day since the Manchester attack that both Labour and the Conservatives returned fully to the political fray. With less than a fortnight to go until polling day, national security looks set to dominate debate in a way few would have predicted when the election was called.

BBC Newsnight

Guardian columnist and a Labour supporter Paul Mason tells Newsnight it feels very soon to resume election campaigning.

But, he adds, "we're in a war with IS [so-called Islamic State]" and "you cannot avoid the national security implications" being raised in the election campaign.

He says Jeremy Corbyn's opponents have accused the Labour leader of being on the side of the UK's enemies and insists: "He's not on the side of our enemies."

Conservative broadcaster Iain Dale says that "in an election, it is a bare-knuckle fight" but all parties need to be careful about the tone if they're campaigning now.

He argues that the timing of Jeremy Corbyn's speech was "unfortunate" but adds that during a national emergency "the prime minister gets all the airtime and Jeremy Corbyn was right to get on the front foot".

BBC Newsnight

"In Manchester I'm not sure people are really focusing on the election campaign right now," Jennifer Williams, political editor of the Manchester Evening News, tells Newsnight.

"It's been four days... we're still a city in shock," she says, adding that from her personal perspective, it feels "too soon" for campaigning to restart.

She has heard opinions from people locally about the timing of Jeremy Corbyn's speech on foreign policy earlier and some reactions have ranged from "poor to crass to livid".