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The issue here is that Theresa May cannot call a general election. The Fixed-term Parliament Act means that the only ways to call an early general election are

by Khol 10y ago

The issue here is that Theresa May cannot call a general election. The Fixed-term Parliament Act means that the only ways to call an early general election are if parliament passes a motion of no confidence in her majesty's government or a two thirds majority of MPs passes a motion to bring an early general election. (A third alternative would be to repeal the act.)

onion2k 10y ago
Even if May could get past the Fixed-term Parliament Act, a general election could turn in to a rerun of the EU referendum if the Labour party were to campaign on the grounds of not wanting to invoke Article 50, so the Tories would seen as the Leave party and Labour as the Remain party. Given the events of the past few months, I doubt that the Tories would risk that.
- notahacker 10y ago
  I think they'd be reasonably happy with that, given that (i) Remain voters are highly concentrated in specific urban constituencies which tend not to vote Conservative anyway (ii) The Remain vote is more split between different political parties than the Leave vote in a FPTP electoral system (iii) Labour doesn't even have a consistent policy against Brexit and (iv) There's no way that conservative-minded Remainers are going to see a maybe anti-Brexit Jeremy Corbyn government as a more attractive option than a definitely-going-to-Brexit-but-not-lead-by-Jeremy-Corbyn Conservative government.
notahacker 10y ago
This is a purely theoretical obstacle. In practice, she could call a vote of no confidence in her government and order her MPs to abstain at very short notice.
- gsnedders 10y ago
  Why abstain? You risk the motion not passing if they abstain: you simply whip the party to vote in favour of the motion, therefore defeating yourself.
  - notahacker 10y ago
    Abstaining is less politically embarrassing than voting no confidence in yourself. You can guarantee that at least some of the opposition MPs will vote no confidence in your government, and it's not really politically possible for them to vote in favour of your government.
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by Khol 10y ago

onion2k 10y ago

Even if May could get past the Fixed-term Parliament Act, a general election could turn in to a rerun of the EU referendum if the Labour party were to campaign on the grounds of not wanting to invoke Article 50, so the Tories would seen as the Leave party and Labour as the Remain party. Given the events of the past few months, I doubt that the Tories would risk that.

notahacker 10y ago
I think they'd be reasonably happy with that, given that (i) Remain voters are highly concentrated in specific urban constituencies which tend not to vote Conservative anyway (ii) The Remain vote is more split between different political parties than the Leave vote in a FPTP electoral system (iii) Labour doesn't even have a consistent policy against Brexit and (iv) There's no way that conservative-minded Remainers are going to see a maybe anti-Brexit Jeremy Corbyn government as a more attractive option than a definitely-going-to-Brexit-but-not-lead-by-Jeremy-Corbyn Conservative government.

notahacker 10y ago

This is a purely theoretical obstacle. In practice, she could call a vote of no confidence in her government and order her MPs to abstain at very short notice.

gsnedders 10y ago
Why abstain? You risk the motion not passing if they abstain: you simply whip the party to vote in favour of the motion, therefore defeating yourself.
- notahacker 10y ago
  Abstaining is less politically embarrassing than voting no confidence in yourself. You can guarantee that at least some of the opposition MPs will vote no confidence in your government, and it's not really politically possible for them to vote in favour of your government.

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