29th October, 2019
United Kingdom will go to the polls on 12 December, the first pre-Christmas election since 1923.
The hurdles to the pre-Christmas election were cleared today following the support of the Labour Party for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bill calling for the election.
The legislation for the plan was finalised in the Commons after a day of bitter wrangling and procedural tricks. It will still need the approval of the House of Lords.
The last outstanding issue was resolved in a crunch vote, with MPs deciding that the snap poll should happen on the government’s preferred date of December 12 rather than December 9.
Opposition parties had pushed for the earlier date to ensure that students are still at university, where they tend to be registered to vote. The government won comfortably by 315 to 295.
The Bill was then given its third reading by an overwhelming 438 to 20.
It is believed that the election will serve as an indirect referendum for the Brexit terms as negotiated by Johnson, the implementation of which has now been delayed till 31 January.