Coming into work on Wednesday morning, many commuters in London welcomed a December snap election to break the Brexit deadlock.
On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally won parliamentary approval for a gamble on a snap ballot that he hopes will break the deadlock over Brexit.
Just two days before the third Brexit deadline of October 31, which will be missed despite Johnson’s “do or die” promise to deliver on the divorce on that date, his bid to hold an election before the end of this year was approved by 438 to 20 votes in the House of Commons.
The first Christmas-season election in Britain since 1923 will be hard to call.
Brexit has variously fatigued and enraged swathes of voters while eroding traditional loyalties to the two major parties, Johnson’s Conservatives and Labour.
Johnson, 55, hopes to win a majority to push through the last-minute Brexit deal he struck this month with the European Union while his main opponent, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is pitching a radical socialist government and another EU referendum.
The election result will be announced on Friday December 13. If no party wins conclusively, the future of Brexit will be thrown up in the air again with options ranging from a tumultuous no-deal exit to another referendum that could scupper the whole divorce.
Johnson’s Conservatives are ahead of Labour by an average of about 10 percentage points in polls this month, though pollsters underestimated the support for Brexit in 2016 and admit that the models they use are wilting beside the Brexit furnace.
