where I came across the suggestion on Electrum website - to update the Electrum software manually - & so I did.
Did you also verify the digital signature of the binaries that you downloaded against this public key[1] before installing it? Keep in mind that it is not enough to have downloaded it from "correct" website, you must verify the signature against the correct public key. Without it you can NOT trust the authenticity of what you have.
[1]
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spesmilo/electrum/master/pubkeys/ThomasV.asc