December poll will get Brexit done – Johnson
Britain will head to the polls for its first December general election in almost a century as Boris Johnson gambles on voters backing him to secure Brexit.
The prime minister won Commons support for a snap election on December 12 by an overwhelming 438 votes to 20 after months of Brexit deadlock.
The Liberal Democrats and SNP had signalled their support for the early poll before Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, fell into line. He insisted that confirmation of another Brexit extension from the EU meant there was no longer a threat of a no-deal exit.
Johnson justified sending the country to the polls for the second time since the referendum by saying that further delay was ‘‘seriously damaging the national interest’’.
He acknowledged that it would be a ‘‘tough election’’ after addressing the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers. He added: ‘‘I think it’s time for the country to come together, get Brexit done and go forward.’’
Allies privately conceded that he risked a backlash for triggering a winter election without having delivered on his ‘‘door-die’’ promise to take Britain out of the EU this week.
It will be the first December election since 1923 and there will be concerns about safety and inconvenience for voters in the short days before Christmas.
Johnson will stick to a campaign based on his promise to ‘‘get Brexit done’’ while also focusing on the NHS, education and crime. He will present it as the ‘‘people versus parliament’’ in an effort to secure a majority that will allow him to get his withdrawal bill, and subsequent Brexit-related legislation, through the Commons.
In a sign of anxiety that he could lose ground among Remainleaning Tory voters, he handed the Conservative whip back to 10 MPs whom he had kicked out for helping to delay Brexit last month. However, he left Philip Hammond, the former chancellor of the exchequer; David Gauke, the former justice secretary; and Rory Stewart, the former international development secretary, out in the cold.
There are also fears among some Conservative MPs that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party could take enough votes to deny them victory in certain seats.
Corbyn, who confounded critics by making gains for Labour in 2017, said that he could not wait ‘‘to get out there on the streets’’. His election campaign will claim that a ‘‘privileged’’ Johnson wants a ‘‘Trump Brexit’’ that would undermine workers’ rights and the National Health Service.
He said that the election was a once-in-a-generation chance to transform the country. Not everyone in his party was as enthusiastic. Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, said that it was ‘‘sheer madness’’ to support a December poll. – The Times