UK Ministers join calls for an early election

Theresa May - Neil Hall/PA 

Two cabinet ministers have joined other senior Tories in urging Theresa May to call a snap election to secure a larger Commons majority heading into the Brexit negotiations.

The unnamed figures join William Hague and other senior party figures in calling for an early vote while the Conservatives enjoy a poll lead over Labour.

One minister told The Times “she needs to go sooner rather than later”, while another added: “We may never get this sort of chance again and we don’t know what’s coming round the corner.”

William Hague was the first Tory grandee to break ranks and call on May to hold an early election to secure a stronger hand in talks with Brussels.

A Cabinet source said Lord Hague had “performed a service” by putting on the record his desire to see the Prime Minister hold a snap vote.

“The bottom line is that Labour are in a bad way now and we should look at going to the country,” the source told The Times.

Yesterday former health secretary Lord Lansley and former chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 committee Lord Spicer also lent their voice to calls for an early election, along with Tory peer Lord Strathclyde.

The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act dictates that elections will take place every five years – unless two-thirds of the Commons vote in favour of an early poll.

Downing Street has insisted May will not call an early election, with a source stressing to The Times: “It’s not going to happen.”

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith conditioned his support for an early election, saying the Prime Minister should lay the ground for a snap poll if peers tried to defeat the forthcoming Great Repeal Bill.

“If it gets really difficult and we are getting… bogged down then she has the right to go to the country. I’m sure she will have people working in the background saying, ‘Here’s how you do it’,” he told the Daily Politics.

Lord Strathclyde, meanwhile, also backed Lord Hague’s remark that the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act “is no longer necessary and should be repealed”.

“I also agree with him that the Government should be prepared to call an early election,” he added.

Speaking to Radio 4’s World at One, Lord Lansley, who served in David Cameron’s cabinet during the coalition government, said the Prime Minister should hold a vote before entering the Article 50 negotiations.

He argued that the Tories would secure a larger majority at an early poll, and said this would help Mrs May fight off attempts to control the outcome of the final Brexit deal through amendments to the Great Repeal Bill.

“I think that is why Theresa needs a secure, large-scale majority sufficient for her to be able to push through the deal that she needs,” he added.

Lord Lansley said that while the position was not “widely shared” in the party, Conservative MPs should come round to their way of thinking.

Jeremy Corbyn said his party would “consider” backing a Commons motion to dissolve Parliament early, despite saying in December that Labour would support a snap poll.