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UK Labour Party Leader Pushes for Early General Elections | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Music fans listen as Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party, addresses the crowd from the Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival of Music. AFP


UK Labour Party Leader Pushes for Early General Elections

by | Jun 25, 2017 | World |

UK Labour Party Leader Pushes for Early General Elections

London- Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn promised to spare no effort in trying “to force an early general election” after British Prime Minster Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority in the June 8 election.

May had called for a snap election in April in hopes of getting an increased majority that could have strengthened her position before going into two years of intense negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s departure from the bloc.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror published on Saturday, Corbyn said it was “ludicrous” to suggest May could stay in power and that his party “will challenge this government at every step and try to force an early general election.”

However, May’s election gamble spectacularly backfired. British voters dealt her a devastating blow, wiping out her parliamentary majority and throwing the country into political turmoil.

Conservatives won 318 seats in the 650-member House of Commons followed by the main opposition Labour Party which clinched 262 seats. May’s party is short of the 326 it needed for an outright majority and fairly down from the 330 seats it had before the election.

May is now trying to save herself by forming a coalition government with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which won 10 seats.

But the DUP is demanding £2 billion investment in health and infrastructure projects of Northern Ireland, and warning that the party cannot be “taken for granted.”

“Mrs. May called the election so not to have a coalition of chaos, but that is exactly what we have got, they don’t seem to have come to an agreement with the DUP two weeks after the election,” Corbyn told the Daily Mirror.

Corbyn’s remarks come as he overtook May for the first time as voters’ choice for leading the country, according to a YouGov poll for The Times published on Friday.

The YouGov survey found that 35 percent of respondents voted for Corbyn and thought that the Labour Party leader would be the best choice for the country’s prime minister.

The poll found the incumbent premier one point behind on 34 percent, while 30 percent of those surveyed said they were unsure. A total of 1,670 people participated in the survey.

This is the first time Corbyn is ahead in a poll asking who would be the best prime minister.