Opposition parties have said they welcome an election, making it likely that the government will secure the two-thirds majority it needs.
Theresa May has insisted that a snap general election will enhance the Government's ability to strike a good deal with the European Union as it negotiates Brexit.
"When all is said and done, she has chosen this election, she presumably has some confidence in her position, why won't she go out there and argue with people like me who want to challenge her?" "I think people out there want to have an honest debate". But, after thinking "long and hard" during a walking holiday, she decided it was necessary to try to stop the opposition "jeopardizing" her work on Brexit.
The Brexit negotiations are expected to start in June.
"I've taken this decision because I genuinely believe it is in the national interest", May told BBC radio.
Tim Farron said he was "very disappointed" in Mrs May for refusing to commit to a televised event, adding: "It seems to me she feels she has got everything to lose by going on television and debating myself and others".
May had repeatedly ruled out a snap election but clearly wants to capitalise on the Conservative party's lead in the polls, now running at more than 20 per cent. Analysts at Deutsche Bank also believe a convincing election victory for May will make the deadline to deliver a "clean" Brexit without a lengthy transitional arrangement by 2019 "far less pressing", given that there will now be no election in 2020.
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Mrs May indicated that Conservative candidates will be expected to sign up to her election manifesto in full, putting pressure on remaining Europhiles within her party to toe the line.
Political pundits in Britain are also attributing the move as a direct attack on a weakened Opposition, the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
Parliament will vote Wednesday on holding a June 8 election.
May, who had taken charge as Prime Minister just weeks after Britain's voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, had repeatedly dismissed the idea of an early election. The election will be a vote on her performance so far. She said she was confident of reaching a deal in that time frame.
Underlining divisions the vote is unlikely to mend, however, Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of the Scottish government, described the decision as a "huge political miscalculation" that could help her efforts to hold a new independence referendum.
Germany's foreign minister has said he hopes that the election will lead to more clarity and predictability in the Brexit negotiations. The government's current working majority is only 17 seats.
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