Under what (if any)...
 

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[Closed] Under what (if any) circumstances could an early general election be called?

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Could anyone clarify for me? The question is specific to the title, I'm not asking "if" we should have an early one or get into other subjects!

Thanks for the info guys!


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:23 pm
 ajf
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Your Boris Johnson and I claim my prize.

Someone told you you can't resign in 6 months?


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:28 pm
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The conditions for when a snap election can be called have been significantly restricted by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) to occasions when the government loses a confidence motion or when a two-thirds supermajority of MPs vote in favour. Prior to this, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had the de facto power to call an election at will by requesting a dissolution from the monarch – the limited circumstances where this would not be granted were set out in the Lascelles Principles.


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:29 pm
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Hang on, can you explain about how May and Johnson both called elections early then? I thought the FTPA would have prevented that, but it seems that they still did.


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:35 pm
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I think you need a certain number of hashtags on social media for it to happen.


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:36 pm
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The Fixed Term Parliament Act is supposed to make it harder to call an early election. But the parliament could repeal that act, or pass a new act to override it. And that would only require a simple majority.
That's what they did for the 2019 election.


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 7:39 pm
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Thanks guys!


 
Posted : 26/08/2020 9:51 pm
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Member
The Fixed Term Parliament Act is supposed to make it harder to call an early election. But the parliament could repeal that act, or pass a new act to override it. And that would only require a simple majority.
That’s what they did for the 2019 election.

No they didn't


 
Posted : 27/08/2020 7:43 am
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Thought they'd just got the required majority to call the 2019 election? As they couldn't get the proposed Brexit Bill through?


 
Posted : 27/08/2020 9:25 am
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No they didn’t

Yes they did.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/29/contents/enacted

The triggers for an early election are set in the 2011 Act. They are basically what mrsheen said: a vote of confidence (leads to period of negotiation, maybe a new gvt, maybe an election) or the 2/3 supermajority vote in the Commons.

The gvt couldn't get the numbers in the Commons to use either of them in late 2019, so they passed a whole new Act through parliament (requiring only simple majorities in each House) to override, for one time only, those triggers and set the election date directly as 12 December 2019.


 
Posted : 27/08/2020 9:37 am

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