Brexit on hold as December general election backed

That’s it for this evening. Read the full story here.

With the election locked in, the main parties are kicking off their election campaigns.

Boris Johnson received a rapturous reception as he arrived at a meeting of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee after his bid for an early general election cleared the Commons, according to PA news agency. MPs cheered and banged the table as he arrived for the meeting in Parliament.

Meanwhile on Twitter, the Labour Party called the election “a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild and transform our country.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacted by posting a campaign video:

Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson said the election will “decide the future of our country for generations. It is our best chance to elect a government to stop Brexit.”

She added:

The British Parliament will be dissolved next Wednesday, the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg said told the house this evening.

The December 12 poll – backed this evening by MPs – will be the third time in four years that the country will hold a general election.

In fact, British voters have had their say in some sort of election every single year for the past five years:

A vote on Thursday, December 12 means the UK will get election results on Friday, December 13.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons have voted to hold a snap poll on Thursday, 12 December in an attempt to break the political impasse over Brexit.

It must now go to the House of Lords to be signed off.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons are now voting on the main motion of holding a snap election on December 12.

Results are expected in about 15 minutes.

Lawmakers rejected the Labour Party’s amendment to move the date to Monday, December 9.

It was defeated by 315 votes to 295.

The government favors December 12.

… here’s a picture from the 1923 poll, the last time a UK general election happened in December.

Labour Party candidate Henry Gosling supervises a poster campaign during the election.

MPs are voting on an amendment to the Early Parliamentary General Election Bill which would move the proposed date from the government-favoured December 12 to the opposition’s suggestion of December 9.

Results expected in about 15 minutes.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted just before the key parliamentary vote on an early general election.

He has accused Parliament and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of “blocking everything” and said the country needs a new Parliament to move on.

We’re not far away now from finding out the date for the snap UK poll. And it’s been a long time (1923, to be exact) since the UK held an election in the month of December

Most lawmakers agree the date isn’t great. Worries voiced in Parliament this evening include the risk of bad weather, the timing possibly coinciding with school nativity plays, university students breaking for the end of semester and people simply being too busy in the run-up to the holiday season.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans said the election date was not ideal, but that the vote was necessary:

The list of lawmakers who’ve had the Conservative Party whip restored doesn’t include some high-profile names. Of the 21 MPs, only 10 have been invited back in.

The rest are, according to PA news agency, still suspended. They include former Chancellor Philip Hammond, the longest serving MP Ken Clarke and former Tory leadership candidate Rory Stewart.

One of the 11, Sam Gyimah, defected to the Liberal Democrats.

Ten Conservative Party rebels who were kicked out of the party for voting against Boris Johnson’s government last month have been allowed back in, according to the PA news agency.

The Prime Minister had removed the party whip from 21 MPs in early September (including some big names) for voting against a no-deal Brexit.

PA reported that the following MPs had the whip restored tonight:

Caroline Lucas, who represents the Green Party in the House of Commons, says she won’t vote for the early election because the next poll must focus on broader issues.

Instead of a general election, Lucas wants another Brexit referendum in which voters decide between remaining in the bloc and the deal struck by the government with the EU.

She says that the next election should be focused on climate change.

**Election nerd alert**

Chris Hanretty, a professor of politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, has looked into the issue of the student vote in a series of tweets.

Based on assumptions about the number of students in the UK and their voting habits, he says that if 10% of students who would normally vote decide to skip the election because of vacation, there would be between 144,200 and 188,500 fewer votes in total.

He goes on to explore the nitty gritty details of what that would mean for different parties (hint: Labour and Lib Dems would lose the most).

Read the whole thread here:

Lawmakers in the House of Commons are now discussing when to hold the early vote.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrats’ leader Jo Swinson have proposed an amendment that would specify Monday, December 9 as the date. The government wants Thursday, December 12.

Three days may not seem like much, but the Liberal Democrats and Labour are worried that the later date could prevent some students from voting.

They argue many might be travelling home for vacation because the date coincides with the end of semester at many UK universities.

The early election bill has passed its second reading in Parliament, clearing the first stage of the process in the House of Commons. It passed without a formal vote with Speaker of the House John Bercow instead asking MPs to express their opinion verbally. The response was an overwhelming “aye.”

The bill has now moved to the so-called committee stage, during which MPs will vote on the amendments that have been selected.

It’s worth noting, Bercow has stepped aside as this stage is usually chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle.

The chances of an early election being scuppered have faded. The Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, chairman of the Commons Ways and Means Committee, has ruled two problematic amendments out of scope.

The government had said it would pull the bill if lawmakers voted in favor of giving the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds, and to EU citizens living in the UK. But those measures are now off the table.

The only choice facing lawmakers is the date.

Boris Johnson wants the election to happen on December 12; opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has proposed an amendment that would specify December 9 as the date, and another Labour MP, Ian Murray, has thrown in a wildcard of May 2020.

Labour MP Jess Phillips is speaking now. Phillips is known for passionate speeches and today is no exception.

She is pleading for Parliament to try to find a consensus, instead of forcing people to vote in yet another election that may “end up in a hung parliament.”

Phillips referred to an incident in her constituency a few weeks ago, in which a man was arrested and charged after calling her a “fascist” and trying to “break into” her office: