Back to the ballot box: UK lawmakers approve June 8 election
LONDON — British voters will be heading to polling stations for the third time since 2015, after lawmakers overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Theresa May’s call for a snap election on June 8.
The parliamentary election comes less than a year after Britain voted to leave the European Union, and will likely be dominated by the political and economic upheaval spawned by Brexit.
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.
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.