Brits will head to the polls in June after Prime Minister Theresa May announced a snap election overnight. But she said Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership following the referendum.
She said parliament would be asked to vote today to decide on whether or not to hold an election.
The Cayman Islands, as an overseas territory, could therefore find itself dealing with an entirely new administration in Britain just two weeks after its own election, though the probability of the Tory Party losing is slim.
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.
"Clearly she sees the opportunity, given the total disarray in the ranks of the Labour party, to crush all opposition to her, to get rid of people who disagree with her, and to give herself a free hand to take the country in the increasingly right-wing direction that she wants to take it in".
Legislation that came into effect in 2011 requires fixed term Parliaments and elections every five years from 2015 onwards, though a clause under it enables Parliament to be dissolved, triggering an election, if two-third of members at the House of Commons agrees to it. Ms.
The European Union will stick to a timetable for preparing to launch Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom despite the British government's call for an early general election, an EU spokesperson said.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to the media outside 10 Downing Street, in central London, Britain April 18, 2017.
New Video Shows Exchange Before Police Dragged Man From United Flight
Royal Jordanian tweeted a no-smoking picture saying "drags on our flights are strictly prohibited by passengers and crew". David Dao , 69, recovered Wednesday at a hospital, according to two Chicago attorneys representing him.
With Labour demoralized and divided under left-wing leader Corbyn and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats holding just nine Commons seats, May is calculating that the election will bring her an expanded crop of Conservative lawmakers.
The Conservatives now have a commanding poll lead over their Labour rivals stretching to more than 20 percentage points.
The Prime Minister appealed to the British public to give her the mandate to abide by their wish to leave the European Union expressed in last year's referendum.
She told The Sun she made a decision to reverse earlier pledges not to go to the country early because she wanted to be able to go into Brexit negotiations with the "backing of the British people" as her "very clear mandate".
May said the election was to allow the government to strive forward with "unity" in Brexit negotiations.
"Our opponents believe because the government's majority is so small, that our resolve will weaken and that they can force us to change course".
"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.
Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mrs May's plans were a "huge political miscalculation". The PM now enjoys a working majority of just 17.
Comments