UK set for snap polls to end Brexit logjam
Labour agrees to third election in 4 years, likely to be held in December
LONDON: After over three years of wrangling over the issue of leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom is facing another snap election in the near future after the opposition Labour agreed to support the move in the House of Commons where the Boris Johnson government is in a minority.
The House was on Tuesday debating a bill that requires a simple majority - not the twothirds needed under the Fixed Term Parliament Act to trigger an election.
It is due to be voted on Tuesday evening, with the election date the third since the 2015 general election - likely to be on December 9 or 11 or 12.
Former prime minister David Cameron, who won the 2015 election and called the 2016 EU referendum, resigned soon after the leave vote emerged.
His successor Theresa May called a mid-term election in 2017 in the hope of securing a larger majority to deliver her version of Brexit, but had to leave office when critics inside and outside her party voted down thrice the agreement she had secured in Brussels, paving the way for Johnson to take over in July this year.
Johnson often goaded Labour to agree to the election to resolve the Brexit imbroglio, but the party held off to ensure that leaving the EU without an agreement is ruled out. This has now been ruled out, with the EU granting another extension until January 31 and the UK no longer facing the October 31 Brexit deadline.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in the House: “I have consistently said that we are ready for an election and our support is subject to no-deal Brexit being off the table. We have now heard from the EU that extension of Article 50 to 31 January has been confirmed”.
“We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change our country has ever seen,” he added, as some of his party MPs expressed reluctance to vote for the bill to trigger the election later on Tuesday.
Johnson wants the election to “refresh this parliament and give people the choice”, since another election is the only way out after the House had rejected the revised version of May’s Brexit agreement he had secured in Brussels last week.
The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party are supporting the bill.
However, despite all parties extending support to the election move, it was by no means certain that the vote would reflect the situation.
An amendment moved to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote, if passed, will delay the election into 2020 due to the time needed for administrative changes to enable their vote.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “Nothing would sum up how broken this parliament is if after them all standing up there and saying they want a general election - they vote for an amendment which is deliberately designed to actually prevent the delivery of a general election before 2020.”