British PM May calls for early election

Says, need to strengthen her hand in divorce talks with EU by bolstering support for her Brexit plan

British Prime Minister Theresa May called on Tuesday for an early election on June 8, saying she needed to strengthen her hand in divorce talks with the European Union by bolstering support for her Brexit plan.

Standing outside her Downing Street office, May said she had been reluctant to ask parliament to back her move to bring forward the poll from 2020. But, after thinking "long and hard" during a walking holiday, she decided it was necessary to try to stop the opposition "jeopardising" her work on Brexit.

Some were surprised by May's move — the Conservative prime minister has repeatedly said she does not want to be distracted by campaigning — but opinion polls give her a strong lead and the British economy has so far defied predictions of a slowdown.

Growth is faster than expected, consumer confidence is high and unemployment low, but the economy may be poised to pass its peak as consumers start to feel the strain from rising prices.

What’s next? 

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday called for an early election on June 8. Here are the steps needed before the vote happens. 

HOW WILL SHE CALL AN ELECTION?

Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, passed in 2011, a motion for a new vote ahead of schedule needs to be carried by two thirds of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, including vacant seats. This means that the government needs 434 votes to call the election. May said that she would introduce a motion to Parliament on Wednesday. If it is passed, Parliament will come to an end 25 working days before the date of the general election which, accounting for public holidays, will be May 3.

May's Conservatives hold 330 seats in the chamber, and the opposition Labour party 229. Labour has said that it will vote for the election, so the combined 559 votes would be enough to pass the motion if all lawmakers of both parties follow the party line.

WHY DID MAY CHANGE HER MIND?

Theresa May has previously said that Britain needs stability rather than a new election, but on Tuesday she implied that division in Westminster was undermining that stability already. May's position may also have been influenced by the polls.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR BREXIT?

If May wins the election, her position would be strengthened at home and in negotiations with the 27 other members of the EU. With a large majority, May would be less beholden to extreme eurosceptics inside the Conservative Party while winning a personal mandate would strengthen her position as prime minister. 

By calling one in June, May could win more space domestically as the next British election would not be due until 2022.  

Sterling rose to a four-month high against the US dollar after the market bet that May would strengthen her parliamentary majority, which Deutsche Bank said would be a "game-changer" for the pound. But the stronger pound helped push Britain's main share index to close down 2.3 per cent, its biggest one-day loss since June 27, days after Britain voted to leave the EU.

Gold and stocks jumped and the US dollar fell on Tuesday, adding to investors concern about geopolitical instability. "It was with reluctance that I decided the country needs this election, but it is with strong conviction that I say it is necessary to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs to see us through Brexit and beyond," May said. 

"Before Easter I spent a few days walking in Wales with my husband, thought about this long and hard, and came to the decision that to provide that stability and certainty for the future that this was the way to do it, to have an election," she told ITV news.

Britain joins a list of western European countries scheduled to hold elections this year. Votes in France in April and May, and in Germany in September, have the potential to reshape the political landscape around the two years of Brexit talks with the EU expected to start in earnest in June.

A survey conducted after May's announcement put her Conservative Party 21 points ahead of the main opposition Labour Party. The ICM/Guardian poll of 1,000 people put Conservative support at 46 per cent, with Labour on 25 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 11 per cent. May's personal ratings also dwarf those of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, with 50 per cent of those asked by pollster YouGov saying she would make the best prime minister. Corbyn wins only 14 per cent. 

May is counting on winning the support of British voters, who backed Brexit by 52-48 per cent. Some Britons questioned on social media whether they wanted to cast yet another ballot less than a year after the June referendum and two years after they voted in the last parliamentary poll.

The EU welcomed a snap British election that one of its leaders likened to a Hitchcock plot twist, but there was conspicuously little talk in Brussels of the vote halting Britain's exit from the bloc. Instead, EU officials echoed Prime Minister Theresa May's hopes that a parliamentary poll on June 8 could strengthen her own hand in managing the Brexit negotiations which are due to start around the same time.

Business groups largely welcomed the move, while expressing concern that the government's focus may stray away from the economy, which May said had defied "predictions of immediate financial and economic danger".

Underlining divisions the vote is unlikely to mend, however, Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of the Scottish government, described the decision as a "huge political miscalculation" that could help her efforts to hold a new independence referendum.

In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk, who is running the negotiations with Britain, said the election was a Brexit plot twist worthy of Alfred Hitchcock — the late film director known as the master of suspense.

Before holding the early election, May must win the support of two-thirds of the parliament in a vote on Wednesday, which looked certain after Labour and the Liberal Democrats said they would vote in favour.

Labour's Corbyn welcomed the election plan, but some of his lawmakers doubted whether it was a good move, fearing they could lose their seats.