"If we're negotiating at a point that is quite close to a general election, I think the Europeans might have seen that as a time of weakness when they could push us", she explained.
"What we will now have when we leave the European Union is the ability to have control in relation to people moving to the United Kingdom from the European Union".
Theresa May has blamed opposition parties for her U-turn on seeking a snap election, accusing them of being intent on "frustrating" the Brexit process.
MPs are now debating a motion to bring forward the election by three years, with Mrs May expected to secure the two-thirds majority of MPs needed in the vote later this afternoon.
May said holding an election in June, rather than as scheduled in 2020, would "deliver a more secure future for our country" as it negotiates its departure from the EU.
"That would be in nobody's interest", May said.
If the vote is carried, Parliament will be dissolved on 3 May, 25 days before the election date. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties - rivals to May's Conservative Party - have welcomed the early election, media reports have noted.
The party came second in the last General Election, winning 12,660 votes, 23 per cent of all votes cast.
May, who has described herself as "not a showy politician", also said she would not take part in television debates before the election, preferring to talk directly to voters.
Despite Corbyn's bravado, his party is demoralized and divided under his left-wing leadership and is expected to fare badly.
May's Conservatives now hold 330 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
Jazz steal Game 1 from the Clippers: 3 takeaways
Gobert immediately had to helped to the locker room and the series already looked to have shifted before it ever even started. Quite honestly, our bench has not been that happy-go-lucky group getting all fired up about the team most of this year.
With the Conservatives in a commanding polling lead, the election could spell defeat for many Labour MPs in marginal seats.
But Mr Corbyn shot back: "If she's so proud of her record, why won't she debate it?"
True, there may be a bit more of a debate worth having on whether the public actually wants a general election so soon after the previous one and after the European Union referendum.
Sterling rose to a four-month high against the U.S. dollar after the market bet that May would strengthen her parliamentary majority, which Deutsche Bank said would be a "game-changer" for the pound.
"We need a general election and we need one now", she said.
At the same time, the Hume Brophy Public Affairs company rightly says that the prime minister's agenda is clearly looking to the electorate to provide her with more powerful and mandated majority voting powers to remove any doubts over her legitimacy to lead the United Kingdom out of Europe. Leaders of European Union states are due to adopt negotiating guidelines at an April 29 summit, and the bloc will prepare detailed plans for the talks with Britain by late May.
Initially, EU officials had said that the talks could start in late May once a detailed negotiating mandate had been agreed among the EU's 27 other members.
And Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood - whose profile received a major boost from her involvement in two of the 2015 broadcasts - said: "Theresa May should be empty chaired if she doesn't show up to any planned TV debates".
In a preview of her election strategy, Mrs May said: "I will be taking out to the country in this campaign a proud record of a Conservative government".
ITV was the first broadcaster to confirm it will host a live debate, despite Mrs May's insistence that she will not take part.
"The prime minister is acutely aware that divisions in her party over Europe have claimed the political careers of three predecessor Conservative prime ministers".
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