May rules out general election before Brexit
A general election before Brexit day would not be in the national interest, Theresa May has said.
The Prime Minister moved to scotch suggestions of a November poll after reports that Downing Street officials had war-gamed a winter vote.
Speaking to reporters as she flew to New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Mrs May said: “What I’m doing is working to deliver a good deal with Europe in the national interest.
“It would not be in the national interest to have an election.”
After losing the Conservatives’ overall majority in the House of Commons in the snap election which she called in 2017, Mrs May is generally thought to be wary of taking the risk of going to the country early again.
Under the Fixed-term Parliament Act, no general election is due to be held until 2022.
But there have been reports that some within her administration believe a fresh poll could give her the comfortable majority she needs to drive through a Brexit deal in the face of increasingly robust opposition from both the Leave and Remain wings of her party.