Downing Street denies rumours of another snap poll
Downing Street insists Theresa May is not considering proposing a snap general election on June 6.
"No, absolutely not and any suggestion otherwise is categorically untrue," said the PM's official spokesman said.
Those who say "never believe anything until it has been officially denied" may of course interpret this as confirmation.
I was wrong about a similar prediction before: when the PM denied that she was going to call a general election in 2017 I took that statement at face value and of course this turned out to be a bad call when she changed her mind.
However, given that the resulting election not only failed to resolve the problem of getting a Brexit deal through parliament but made it far worse, and saw a 20% Conservative poll lead evaporate, I find it plausible that the PM would be "once bitten, twice shy" and reluctant to risk a similar outcome when one opinion poll has given her a much smaller lead.
There is also the little matter of the Fixed Term Parliament Act - which requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons for a motion calling an early election, or for a government to engineer it's own defeat in a No Confidence motion. The former might not be guaranteed: the latter might be a very embarrassing start to an election campaign.
"No, absolutely not and any suggestion otherwise is categorically untrue," said the PM's official spokesman said.
Those who say "never believe anything until it has been officially denied" may of course interpret this as confirmation.
I was wrong about a similar prediction before: when the PM denied that she was going to call a general election in 2017 I took that statement at face value and of course this turned out to be a bad call when she changed her mind.
However, given that the resulting election not only failed to resolve the problem of getting a Brexit deal through parliament but made it far worse, and saw a 20% Conservative poll lead evaporate, I find it plausible that the PM would be "once bitten, twice shy" and reluctant to risk a similar outcome when one opinion poll has given her a much smaller lead.
There is also the little matter of the Fixed Term Parliament Act - which requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons for a motion calling an early election, or for a government to engineer it's own defeat in a No Confidence motion. The former might not be guaranteed: the latter might be a very embarrassing start to an election campaign.
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