Britain is on course for a December General Election.
MPs nodded through the UK Government’s early election bill in principle, overcoming the first Commons hurdle without a formal vote.
The Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle declined to select two amendments seeking to change the voting franchise to allow 16 and 17-year-olds as well as EU citizens living in Britain to take part in the forthcoming poll.
Earlier, No 10 made clear if either of these had been selected for a vote and were successful, then the Government would have pulled the bill.
As the legislation made its speedy progress through different stages of the bill, only two amendments were selected for votes; one from Jeremy Corbyn to change the Government’s preferred December 12 date to December 9 and another from his Labour colleague Ian Murray for a poll on May 7 2020.
While the wrangling continued this evening and barring an unforeseen development, it seemed likely that MPs would one way or another back a late autumn vote in the run-up to Christmas; the first December poll since 1923.
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