Parliament backs May plan for June polls

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday won parliament’s backing for an early election, a vote she said would strengthen her hand in divorce talks with the European Union and help heal divisions in Britain.May surprised allies and opponents on Tuesday when she announced her plan to bring forward an election that was not due until 2020, saying she needed to avoid a clash of priorities in the sensitive final stages of the two-year Brexit talks.After addressing a rowdy session of the House of Commons, May won the support of 522 lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament for an election on June 8, an easy victory for the prime minister who could see her majority increase by at least 100 seats in the poll.“I believe that at this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity here in Westminster, not division,” May told parliament.“A general election will provide the country with five years of strong and stable leadership to see us through the negotiations and ensure we are able to go on to make a success as a result, and that is crucial.”The former interior minister, who became prime minister without an election when her predecessor David Cameron quit after last year’s referendum vote for Brexit, enjoys a runaway lead over the main opposition Labour Party in opinion polls.She has also played up the strength of the economy, which has so far defied predictions of a slowdown — a key campaign theme that her Conservative Party will use to try to undermine Labour in the election.A victory would give May a powerful mandate extending until 2022, long enough to cover the Brexit negotiations plus a possible transition period into new trading arrangements with the EU — a prospect that has strengthened the pound.The Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper, splashed the headline “Blue Murder” — a reference to the Conservatives’ colour branding and the prospect of Labour losing dozens of seats.May formally notified the European Union on March 29 of Britain’s intention to leave, and has said she is confident of reaching a deal on the terms of withdrawal in the two years available.She said on Tuesday she had “reluctantly” come to the decision to call for an early election because of political division in Westminster, criticising opposition parties for trying to thwart her plans for leaving the EU.“What do we know that the leader of the Labour Party, the leader of the Liberal Democrats and the leader of the Scottish nationalists have in common?” she asked parliament. “They want to unite together to divide our country and we will not let them do it.”Meanwhile Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said that success for her Scottish National Party in a snap election on June 8 would make it impossible for May to stop a new referendum on Scottish independence.Scotland voted against independence in 2014, but voted to remain in the European Union in 2016 while the United Kingdom as a whole voted to quit the bloc. Sturgeon says this means Scotland should have another chance to vote on secession.“If the SNP wins this election in Scotland and the Tories don’t, then May’s attempt to block our mandate to give the people of Scotland a choice over their own future when the time is right will crumble to dust,” Sturgeon told reporters in London.The Scottish parliament last month backed Sturgeon’s bid to hold a new referendum in 2018 or 2019, but May rejected the proposal.Polls suggest Scots do not believe the timing is right for another referendum, and although support for independence itself has been broadly steady at around 45% or more the SNP is predicted to win most Scottish seats in the snap poll.May’s decision to push for a national ballot will exacerbate tensions within the historic union of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.Scots are disgruntled at the idea of a Brexit they rejected while Northern Ireland, which also voted to stick with the EU, is mired in a political crisis made tougher to resolve by the fray of campaigning.