MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
British snap election campaign takes off; May wants to increase her current majority of 17
The prime minister urged voters to give her “the mandate to speak for Britain and to deliver for Britain”. 
Jeremy Corbyn said a Labour government would stop Mrs. May from using Brexit to make the UK an “offshore tax haven”. 
Speaking in Croydon on his first campaign stop, the Labour leader said if elected, he would raise the minimum wage to £10 an hour and increase NHS spending Campaigning is under way after the House of Commons backed Theresa May's call for a general election on 8 June. MPs voted by 522 votes to 13 - with Labour and Lib Dem helping secure the two-thirds majority needed to bring forward the election from 2020.
The prime minister urged voters to give her “the mandate to speak for Britain and to deliver for Britain”. Jeremy Corbyn said a Labour government would stop Mrs. May from using Brexit to make the UK an “offshore tax haven”.
Speaking in Croydon on his first campaign stop, the Labour leader said if elected, he would raise the minimum wage to £10 an hour and increase spending on the NHS, social care and council housing.
The Labour leader confirmed there would be no coalition deal between his party and the SNP, Scottish National Party.
The next general election had been expected in 2020, but the Fixed Term Parliaments Act allows for one to be held earlier if it has the support of two-thirds of MPs. The Commons backed holding a poll in 50 days time by a majority of 509.
Defending the move, Mrs. May told MPs there was a “window of opportunity” to hold a poll before Brexit negotiations began in earnest in June.
The prime minister is hoping to significantly boost her current Commons majority of 17 to increase her authority, ahead of 18 months of talks which will determine the manner of the UK's exit from the EU.
Mrs. May, who became PM last July after the EU referendum, told MPs that it would be wrong for the UK to find itself reaching the most “difficult and sensitive” phase of Brexit negotiations in late 2018 and early 2019 at a time when a general election was “looming on the horizon”.
Speaking later, on her first campaign speech in Bolton, Mrs. May contrasted the “strong and stable leadership” she could provide with what she warned would be a “coalition of chaos” if Jeremy Corbyn was elected.
The Lib Dems, she said, were willing to “prop up” Labour, while she warned the SNP's “tunnel vision” over Scottish independence risked destabilizing the country.
The SNP, whose MPs abstained in Wednesday's vote, has accused Mrs. May of political opportunism and said only it stands in the way of a “hard-line” Tory government.
Nine Labour MPs opposed the snap election as did three independents and the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell. Although Parliament will not be officially dissolved until early May, campaigning is already under way - with Lib Dem leader Tim Farron addressing a rally of activists in south-west London earlier on Wednesday.
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Read all comments“PM May is the only political leader in the UK who has a plan for the country and the will to see it through. There is no doubt where she stands on the important issues, and the most important issue facing the UK today is Brexit.”
Apr 22nd, 2017 - 02:31 am +1I agree with you, no doubt she has a plan. It's called “the Ostrich puts her head in the sand” plan. Or slightly more optimistically, the “I'm totally deluding myself and want to do the same with you all”.
What has she is on record of saying or insinuating so far:
That she will get Britain a better deal for the UK after Brexit than before (no freedom of people but free trade for Britain in the EU)
That she will get the EU, 27 nations of 400 million plus people, to give in more than 1 nation of 60 million will give in.
That she will strike a deal that will satisfy and suit the needs of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Shetlands, Manx, Falklands...
That the UK will keep its banking legal and logistical perks of the EU (while outside), and yet she will be able to pull out of the European court...
But just when you thought the promises could not get more fantastical and saturated with idle fancy, you get this out of London:
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/uk-to-have-no-role-in-location-of-eu-agencies-says-europe-1.3054340
“Following hopes from the UK’s Brexit secretary David Davis that London could retain the European Banking Authority and European Medicines Agency in the capital, the commission has insisted the bodies will move to the continent as part of the UK’s divorce settlement.”
Let's put it in simpler terms that any Anglo can understand: this is the equivalent of dumping your girlfriend and then asking her to keep sleeping with you.
Is there anyone that lives in London who can go to your leader's offices and confirm for all of us that their heads are indeed somewhere in a high polar orbit? Because their feet have left Earth a looong time ago.
Theresa Maybe has no plan and has spent most of her short time as Prime Minister dithering and making U-turns. She's not hoping to win based on her or her party's achievements but intends to take advantage of her opponents' obvious weakness and disunity. It's a depressing situation to be in.
Apr 21st, 2017 - 05:12 pm 0https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/04/cottonwool-election-now-soft-focus/
Apr 22nd, 2017 - 07:33 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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