JEREMY Corbyn has called for a snap election despite the latest opinion poll suggesting the Conservatives have soared ahead of Labour.
The Labour leader said the fact Theresa May had become Prime Minister “without a mandate” from the country meant voters should not have to wait four years before going to the polls.
“Of course there should be a general election. We have a new Prime Minister without a mandate, we have Brexit negotiations that are being undertaken without any authority other than the referendum which said people wanted ultimately to leave the European Union,” he told LBC radio.
Asked if the election should be held this year, he said he supported repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, which states the next general election should be in 2020.
“It’s in [May’s] hands, actually,” he said. “But there’s also the slight constitutional problem of the Fixed Terms Parliaments Act, which requires two-thirds of all MPs to vote for the dissolution of parliament or the repeal of the Fixed Terms Parliaments Act. Now that could be repealed.”
A YouGov poll published earlier this week put the Conservatives on 41 per cent, 11 points ahead of his party amid a revolt by Labour MPs which prompted a leadership challenge from former shadow cabinet minister Owen Smith.
The Labour leader launched his campaign to see off Smith’s bid yesterday, offering the “hand of friendship” to rebellious MPs – though he confirmed they could face a re-selection process ahead of the 2020 General Election.
He said that after the election result is declared on September 24, it will be “the job, the duty, the responsibility” of every Labour MP to “get behind the party”.
Critics of Corbyn fear they could face the prospect of mandatory re-selection from their local parties to be allowed to stand again, and the leader confirmed that, because of the Government’s plans to cut the number of Commons seats, there would be a “full and open” process to choose candidates.
At yesterday’s launch Corbyn was asked to rule out supporting mandatory re-selection, which could give his supporters in the party’s grassroots the ability to oust his critics by replacing them as Labour candidates.
“If this parliament runs to the full term, then the new boundaries will be the basis on which the elections take place and in that case there would be a full selection process in every constituency,” he said.
Corbyn is favourite to win the postal ballot of members – whose ranks he said had swelled to more than 500,000 – as well as the 183,000 people who signed up this week as registered supporters and the affiliated supporters in the unions.
But Smith has the nominations of 162 of the party’s MPs – some 70 per cent of its representation in the Commons – along with half of Labour’s MEPs.
And the Saving Labour movement, which is backing Smith’s campaign, claimed the new supporters who signed up this week would be split between the rival candidates rather than being staunchly pro-Corbyn.
The party leader insisted he could bring Labour back together after the revolt against him at Westminster and lead it into government, claiming “this party is going places” and was “capable of winning a general election”.
He said: “There is a huge amount of talent on the Labour benches. We are part of but not the entirety of the Labour Party and the Labour movement.
“And I hope that those that may not agree with me politically, may not even like me personally – I find that hard to believe, but there are some people apparently who don’t like me – I hold out the hand of friendship to them all, because come September when this election is done and dusted, there will still be a Tory Government in office, there will still be grotesque levels of inequality, there will still be whole parts of this country that are left-behind Britain.”
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