LONDON, Oct 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Boris Johnson has said he is ready to fight a “tough” general election after MPs voted for a Dec 12 poll.
The legislation approved by MPs on Tuesday will later begin its passage through the House of Lords, where it is not expected to be opposed.
Johnson hopes the election will give him a fresh mandate for his Brexit deal and break the current deadlock in Parliament, which has led to the UK’s exit from the EU being further delayed to Jan 31.
The prime minister told his Conservative Party colleagues it was time for the country to “come together to get Brexit done”.
“It’ll be a tough election and we are going to do the best we can,” he added.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the snap poll gave a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to transform the country.
Writing in the Daily Mirror, he outlined his party’s “ambitious and radical campaign for real change”.
The Lib Dems and the SNP both see the election as a chance to ask voters whether Brexit should happen at all.
The pro-EU leader of the Lib Dems, Jo Swinson, has pitched herself as “the Liberal Democrat candidate for prime minister”.
“It is our best chance to elect a government to stop Brexit,” she said.
For the SNP, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said an election was an opportunity for Scotland to hold another independence referendum.
“A win for the SNP will be an unequivocal and irresistible demand for Scotland’s right to choose our own future,” she said.
The Scottish Conservatives claimed voting for their party would keep Scotland in the UK.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage welcomed the election, tweeting that the deadlock had been broken and “Brexit now has a chance to succeed”. — NNN-AGENCIES
