Britain begins unpredictable election battle as Brexit looms
BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked horns on Wednesday with his rivals in a fiery launch to an unpredictable early general election set for December 12 aimed at breaking Britain’s protracted Brexit deadlock.
Johnson’s sparring with the main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn came a day after MPs backed the premier’s call for Britain’s third election in four years.
Parliament has until January 31 to either lend its support to Johnson’s divorce deal or even push for a second referendum on leaving the EU that might help Britain move past its biggest political crisis since World War II.
Weary leaders in Europe will hope the vote ends the years of uncertainty that have chilled the business investment climate and required costly preparations for the possibility of a chaotic “no-deal” end to the 46-year relationship.
Johnson said at a recordbrea k ing 71-minute question-and-answer session in parliament that the “only way to deliver a great Brex it is to vote for t his part y and t his government”.
He accused the socialist Labour leader of engaging in a “flip-flop” over Brexit and pushingan“economicallydisastrous” re-nationalisation programme.
Corbyn shot back by claiming that the Conservative prime minister’s post-Brexit trade proposals were selling out British interests to US President Donald Trump.
“Despite his denials, [the National Health Service] is up for grabs by US corporations in a Trump-style trade deal,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn’s attack line underscores Labour’s desire to shift the campaign’s focus to traditional social issues and away from its past difficulties with Brexit, the defining issue of UK politics.
Britain’s first December vote in nearly 100 years and the third general election in four years was all but confirmed on Wednesday after the legislation cleared its final hurdle in the House of Lords.
It finds Corbyn’s party splintered by bitter feuds.
Pro-EU Labour supporters from big cities have been at loggerheads with Brexit-backing groups such as the powerful trade unions.
Some top party officials have further suggested the party should pick a new leader should it flounder at the polls.
But the 70-year-old Corbyn used his socialist message to stir up a young new support base that nearly helped Labour score a huge upset victory in the last general election in 2017.
Labour’s Brexit promise is to strike an agreement with Brussels that would preserve many of the existing trade ties.
It would then let voters choose between that deal and the option of simply staying in the EU.
The two other main players – the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) – are adopting much firmer stances against Brexit.
The SNP a lso sees the election as another chance to bolster support for Scottish independence.
“A vote for the SNP is a vote to put Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands and demand the right to choose our future,” party leader Nicola Sturgeon told Britain’s Press Association news agency.
A poll of polls compiled by Britain Elects put them in third place with 18 per cent of the vote. The Conservatives were leading the Labour party by a 35-25 margin.
Separate seat layout predictions released by the pro-European Best for Britain campaign group showed the SNP probably finishing third.
Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party stands on the opposite end of the political spectrum and is polling at around 11 per cent.
Farage was one of the Brexit campaign’s figureheads who won the May European poll within months of forming his new group.