Vote volte-face: that was then and this is now

Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election for June 8 was a surprise to many given her earlier assertions that she would not call voters back to the polls before 2020.

Explaining her U-turn, Mrs May claimed divisions at Westminster risked hampering Brexit negotiations, saying: “At this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity here in Westminster, but instead there is division.”

She had previously assured the country a snap election was not required on several occasions. Right from the start of her campaign to replace David Cameron as Tory leader, Mrs May was clear on her views about a snap election as a reaction to the Brexit vote.

In September 2016, at the start of a speech announcing her candidacy for leadership of the Conservative Party, she said: “There should be no general election until 2020.”

In her first major interview after taking office, Mrs May told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the country needed stability and that calling an election would jeopardise that.

She said: “I’m not going to be calling a snap election. I’ve been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability, to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have that election in 2020.”

As late as March 20, Mrs May’s staff continued to rule out an early election.

Her official spokesman told a Westminster media briefing: “There is no change in our position on an early general election, that there isn’t going to be one... It is not going to happen.

“There is a Fixed-term Parliaments Act. We have been clear that there isn’t going to be an early general election and the Prime Minister is getting on with delivering the will of the British people.”

We have been clear that there isn’t going to be an early general election and the Prime Minister is getting on with delivering the will of the British people