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Expert says May seeks to cover bases by announcing early election

An analyst pointed out that the Conservative Party has an insignificant majority in the current House of Commons while some of the Tories actually stand for keeping the United Kingdom’s EU membership
British Prime Minister Theresa May EPA/ANDY RAIN
British Prime Minister Theresa May
© EPA/ANDY RAIN

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced an early parliamentary election in order to gain strong support in the future, Yelena Ananyeva, head of the British Studies Center at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with TASS on Tuesday.

"May has announced an early parliamentary election in order to cover her bases," she said. "She promised not to play political games and now she is accusing her opponents of playing political games."

Ananyeva pointed out that the Conservative Party has an insignificant majority of six seats in the current House of Commons while some of the Tories actually stand for keeping the United Kingdom’s EU membership. "Members of the Labor Party said that they probably would not vote in favor of Brexit while the Scottish nationalists seek a new referendum on independence," the Russian expert added.

"Liberal-democrats have been trying to stonewall the British government while the House of Lords has also been opposing the cabinet because the Tories do not have a majority in the chamber," Ananyeva said. "These are the factors that paved the way for an early election."

On Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party, said that Theresa May planned to use a snap election to "move the UK to the right, force through a hard Brexit and impose deeper cuts." She added that the decision made by the country’s prime minister was "a huge political miscalculation."

"It will once again give people the opportunity to reject the Tories’ narrow, divisive agenda, as well as reinforcing the democratic mandate which already exists for giving the people of Scotland a choice on their future," Sturgeon said.

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