Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey and Nigel Farage express sympathy for victims and condemn attacker

• Manchester synagogue stabbing – latest updates

The leaders of the UK’s four big parties have condemned the Manchester attack, even as details about its nature and the attacker remained unclear.

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, interrupted a trip to Copenhagen on Thursday where he was meeting other European leaders at the European Political Community to fly back to the UK to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee.