Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman has slammed Theresa May’s surprise call for a snap General Election on June 8.
The Prime Minister announced at 11am this morning that she would be attempting to hold an election three years early in a bid to unite Westminster.
She said Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the House of Lords had all threatened to block the government’s Brexit proposals, leading her to look for a stronger mandate to forge ahead.
But Mr Sheerman has said he would be urging colleagues to vote against the proposal in the House of Commons tomorrow.
Mrs May needs two-thirds of MPs to back the plan, for the election, in fewer than eight weeks time, to go ahead.
The veteran Labour MP said the idea was purely to suit the Conservative party’s “narrow party political interests.”
He said: “This has come right when we’re in the midst of negotiating Article 50.
“When there’s an unstable situation in Europe, the USA and beyond, she thinks it’s a good thing, in the national interest, to dash into an election for reasons of political advantage.
“They are also evading the economic predictions of the next two years which say things will get a lot worse.
“She wants to go to an election now when in two or three years we will have seen the effect of Brexit.
“This is a plan to staunch the criticism that will come from it.”
Mr Sheerman, 76, said he would without doubt stand to fight the surprise election, but his first priority was trying to get it defeated.
“I think it’s against the national interest,” he continued.
“I shall be urging that we oppose it.
“But if an election is called we shall take the fight to the Conservatives in the hardest way possible.”
