Toby Perkins caught the punditocracy unawares last night by floating the possibility of a snap election later on this year. Now hold on a minute, doesn’t the Fixed Term Parliaments Act prevent an election from being called at the Prime Minister’s convenience? Yes, that’s right. Unless two thirds of Parliament think otherwise. Here, Toby sets out the circumstances under which this may happen:
I believe that the forces unleashed within the Conservative party are so great that, whether Cameron wins or loses [the EU referendum], many of their MPs and activists will feel it is time for a change at the top … In the event that Cameron goes, I expect his successor to look very keenly at whether the Labour party is capable of fighting a snap general election … If a new Conservative leader demanded a general election it is impossible to imagine how Labour could refuse to go to the country.
