MPs expected to approve Theresa May's plan for a snap election on June 8, in a Commons vote this afternoon. She said she was confident of reaching a deal in that time frame.
Within hours of the Prime Minister announcing her June 8 snap election, Labour leader Mr Corbyn threw down the gauntlet to Mrs May to agree to televised debates, which he said were "what democracy needs and what the British people deserve". May has repeatedly said since becoming the Prime Minister in July that she would not hold an early general election.
But if anti-Brexit voices do well in the polls, May could be forced to soften her demands that Europe provide favorable conditions for the split.
It had been hoped talks could start by the end of that month, but EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Wednesday that "the real political negotiations" with Britain would not start till after the June 8 election.
May, who took office in July after an internal Conservative Party leadership race, wants the election to increase her majority in Parliament and consolidate her power as she faces both pro-EU opposition politicians and hard-core Brexit-backers inside her own party. Some opinion polls have put Labour more than 20 points behind the Conservatives.
During the exchanges in the House, Corbyn sought to turn the debate to non-Brexit issues such as health, employment, funding cuts and education, while May and her party's focus was on Brexit.
Lawmakers voted Wednesday by a resounding 522 to 13 to back May's call for an election, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority in the 650-seat House of Commons needed to trigger an early vote.
Parliament will still sit for another fortnight, but party leaders wasted no time in hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday evening.
An early vote will also delay Brexit talks.
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"Yesterday she changed her mind, not for the good of the country, but for reasons of simple party advantage", Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, told supporters at a rally.
"That's what I have always believed in, it's what I still believe and I still do it - as Prime Minister, as a constituency MP, I still go out and knock on doors in my constituency".
The prime minister said Labour would "bankrupt" the United Kingdom and only the Tories could ensure a "strong economy and defence" and make a success of Brexit. An early ballot will give the next leader more time to implement Brexit before another election.
So far, Labour's stance on Brexit has been to allow the government to go ahead with the European Union divorce, but only under certain conditions, such as retaining strong economic ties with the bloc.
That approach risks satisfying neither its traditional working-class supporters, many of whom backed leaving the European Union, or its urban, pro-European members - leaving many commentators predicting an electoral disaster.
May also told the BBC that her political opponents were intent on "frustrating the Brexit process" " even after Parliament authorized divorce talks with the EU.
But the election also threatens to revive the bitterness and public feuds from last year's referendum over European Union membership.
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaking during Prime Minister's questions in the House of Commons in London, April 19, 2017.
The election announcement caused a rally in the pound, which had fallen since the Brexit vote, amid speculation that May will be returned with a stronger mandate.
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