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.
Mr 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.”
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, set out the Conservatives’ pitch, presenting them as a reluctant participant in the election but the only ones who could deliver a deal. “It’s parliament that’s blocked delivering Brexit. They were given the vote and chose to delay,” he told Today on Radio 4. “A vote for any other party will lead to more delay and more dither.”
Allies privately conceded that Mr Johnson risked a backlash for triggering a winter election without having delivered on his “do or die” promise to take Britain out of the EU tomorrow.
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.
Mr 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 Remain-leaning Tory voters, he handed the Conservative whip back to ten MPs whom he had kicked out for helping to delay Brexit last month. However, he left Philip Hammond, the former chancellor; 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.
Mr 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” Mr Johnson wants a “Trump Brexit” that would undermine workers’ rights and the NHS. He said that the election was a once-in-a-generation chance to transform the country.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, told the Today programme: “We’re going to have a real go at it and I think we’re going to win, we’ll have a majority by Christmas. I can’t think of a better Christmas present.”
Not everyone in their party was as enthusiastic. Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, said that it was “sheer madness” to support a December poll.
The Lib Dems hope to use the election to build momentum by framing it as the “last chance to stop Brexit”. The SNP is confident of making significant gains in Scotland.
Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, set out her party’s stall as the “stop Brexit” party at the same time as launching personal attacks on her two main rivals. She said neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Corbyn was “fit” to be prime minister and insisted the Lib Dems could make a difference despite pledging not to enter a coalition with either of them.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, urged voters not to waste the opportunity to resolve Brexit, warning them that the EU may not agree to another delay. “I will keep my fingers crossed for you,” he tweeted.
Final confirmation of the December 12 date will come after the House of Lords has scrutinised the one-page bill that suspends the Fixed-term Parliaments Act today and it receives royal assent. Labour peers have made clear that they do not intend to amend it. Amendments to add 16 and 17-year-olds and resident EU citizens to the franchise were not selected in the Commons, bringing to an end the last meaningful resistance by MPs opposed to an early election.
An amendment changing the date to December 9 tabled by Mr Corbyn was defeated by 315 to 295. The vote in effect clears the way for parliament to be dissolved a week today.
More than half of voters do not believe that a general election will resolve Brexit, however. A poll by the consultancy Britain Thinks found that 58 per cent did not think that the stalemate would be broken, while 25 per cent thought that it would help.
There is little sign of another way through: 60 per cent thought that a second EU referendum would divide the country further and 53 per cent thought that life would be better if the country had never had the first. Only 33 per cent said that as soon as Britain had left the EU life would go back to normal. In the Brexit blame game, 26 per cent thought that Boris Johnson was responsible for Britain not leaving the EU on October 31 as planned, with 42 per cent blaming Jeremy Corbyn.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/december-12-general-election-will-get-brexit-done-says-boris-johnson-nkhg92krr
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