South Shropshire MP Philip Dunne has backed an election on Thursday 12th December to help unblock the logjam in the House of Commons.
On the fourth time of asking, MPs voted by 438 votes to 20 to hold an early General Election. Conservatives backed the Bill, while Labour split, with only around half of Labour MPs backing an early election. The remainder of Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrat MPs chose to abstain.
Mr Dunne was first elected Member of Parliament for the Ludlow Constituency in May 2005, winning the seat from the Liberal Democrats. He was re-elected in 2010, and in 2015 and 2017 he was re-elected with record majorities for the constituency.
Mr Dunne said: “This was not my preference. I wanted the deal the Prime Minister had secured to progress through the House, so MPs could debate it, scrutinise it, and vote for it - as happened last week at the Bill’s Second Reading - then it would have become law.
But regrettably, Opposition parties made clear their condition of consenting to an election was that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill was not brought back, since they wish to fight the election on manifesto commitments to cancel Brexit.
So for the third time in four years, the public are invited to break the deadlock in Parliament and decide who is best placed to govern this country.
I am honoured to stand for the fifth time in the Ludlow Constituency, and am looking forward to meeting as many voters as possible, campaigning to deliver a workable majority in the House of Commons to get Brexit done, deliver our positive domestic agenda, and keep Corbyn out.”
