May to seek snap election for 8 June [View all]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Last edited Tue Apr 18, 2017, 06:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: BBC

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to call a snap general election on 8 June.

She said Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership following the EU referendum.

Explaining the decision, Mrs May said: "The country is coming together but Westminster is not."

There will be a Commons vote on the proposed election on Wednesday - Labour have said they will vote with the government.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39629603

---

This is cynical opportunism.

[div class"excerpt"]This is from the official notes to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. It confirms that Theresa May does not need to repeal the Act to hold an early election. All she would need would be a vote with a two-thirds majority in the Commons.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 provides for fixed days for polls for parliamentary general elections. The polling day for elections will ordinarily be the first Thursday in May every five years. The first such polling day will be on 7 May 2015. The Prime Minister will be able to defer, by statutory instrument, the polling day for such parliamentary general elections to a day not more than two months later than the scheduled polling day.

The Act also makes provision to enable the holding of early parliamentary general elections. The trigger for such general elections would be either a vote of no confidence in the Government, following which the House of Commons did not pass a motion of confidence in a Government within 14 days, or a vote by at least two-thirds of all MPs in favour of an early election.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/apr/18/corbyn-cressida-dick-met-police-a-gun-may-not-have-saved-pc-killed-in-westminster-terror-attack-says-new-met-chief-politics-live?pagewith:block-58f5e298e4b0e0ec04f01fe8#block-58f5e298e4b0e0ec04f01fe8
She doesn't need to call an election - she has a parliamentary majority, and has not looked like losing any votes in the Commons. She is plain lying when she claims she needs this to negotiate Brexit. What she is doing is playing chicken with Jeremy Corbyn - Labour is well behind in the polls at the moment, and she knows she'll get a lot more seats now (and this would put off the next election from 2020 to 2022). So she wants Corbyn to either agree to an election now, and lose it, or block it, and then she'll use that to say he's afraid.

She's meant to be governing the country and sorting out the mess of Brexit, and she's looking for quick party political advantage instead.

Updated: BBC says Labour will vote for the election, but I'm not sure where that came from. Ah, announcement from Corbyn:

Jeremy Corbyn has put out this statement about Theresa May’s announcement.

I welcome the prime minister’s decision to give the British people the chance to vote for a government that will put the interests of the majority first.

Labour will be offering the country an effective alternative to a government that has failed to rebuild the economy, delivered falling living standards and damaging cuts to our schools and NHS.

In the last couple of weeks, Labour has set out policies that offer a clear and credible choice for the country. We look forward to showing how Labour will stand up for the people of Britain.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/apr/18/corbyn-cressida-dick-met-police-a-gun-may-not-have-saved-pc-killed-in-westminster-terror-attack-says-new-met-chief-politics-live?page=with:block-58f5ed79e4b0e0ec04f02028#block-58f5ed79e4b0e0ec04f02028