May’s secret cell plans New Year Election

A SECRET cell of Tory advisers are making contingency plans for Theresa May to call a snap General Election early next year, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

The team has been working to give the Prime Minister the option of going to the country in February if the Supreme Court rules next month that Parliament must have the final say in triggering the Article 50 process to leave the EU. The group – kept secret even from Mrs May’s Cabinet – is drawing up plans for a ‘mandate election’ where Mrs May would pose as the champion of ‘the people versus the judges’, sources reveal.

As well as looking likely to deliver Mrs May a comfortable Commons majority, victory would also give her the ‘authority’ to crush Brexit opposition in the House of Lords.

Mrs May has insisted she will stick to the existing timetable for a next Election in 2020, but her widening poll lead over struggling Labour has tempted her advisers to go to the country early.

The plans are understood to have been put on hold after the Liberal Democrats surged to victory in the ‘Brexit by-election’ in Richmond Park earlier this month by harnessing powerful local support for Remain. But after last week’s Tory triumph in the Sleaford by-election, they could be given fresh impetus.

Experts say Mrs May’s poll lead suggests she could boost her majority from ten to 70, although the resurgence of the Lib Dems has complicated the calculations.