18/04/2017 BBC News at One

Theresa May calls for a snap general election, to be held on June 8th.

In a surprise announcement Mrs May said she had recently

and reluctantly come to the decision to see the UK through

At this moment of enormous national significance,

there should be unity here in Westminsiter,

The country is coming together but Westminster is not.

The general election would need parliamentary approval.

We're going out there to put the case, to put the case of how

this country could be run, how it could be different,

how we could have a much fairer society that works for all,

That's the case we're putting and I'm looking forward to doing it.

Scotland's First minister says the Prime Minister is trying

to force through a hard Brexit and urges voters

On the markets, the pound fell ahead of Mrs May's statement,

The EU says the call for an election will not change plans for Britain's

We will have more reaction to the Prime Minister's plans for a snap

general election on June the 8th throughout the day here on BBC News.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

The Prime Minister has announced plans to call a snap general

Theresa May said Britain needed certainty, stability

and strong leadership following the EU referendum.

Explaining the decision, Mrs May said she had reluctantly

come to the conclusion that a vote was necessary, adding

"the country is coming together but Westminster is not."

She will need parliamentary approval to formally call the election

Our political correspondent, Ben Wright reports.

Out of the blue, they announced there would be a statement from the

Prime Minister, out of the blue, Theresa May stunned Westminster and

the country with this. I have just chaired a meeting of the Cabinet.

Where we agreed that the government should call a general election. To

be held on June the 8th. The next general election was not due until

2020, but Theresa May said a poll was needed now. The reason she gave,

to bring political stability to Brexit. At this moment of enormous

national significance, there should be unity here in Westminster. But

instead, there is division. The country is coming together, but

Westminster is not. In recent weeks, Labour have threatened to vote

against the final agreement we reach with the European Union. The Liberal

Democrats have said they want to grind the business of government to

a standstill. The Scottish National Party say they will vote against the

legislation that formerly repeals Britain's never shipped of the

European Union. And unelected members of the House of Lords have

without a fight as every step of the way. -- they have vowed to fight us.

Our opponents believe that because the government's majority is so

small, our resolve will weaken and they can force us to change course,

they are wrong. The Prime Minister said she had only recently and

reluctantly decided to call an election but said the political

choice was now stark. It will be a choice between strong and stable

leadership in the national interest, with me as your Prime Minister, all

week and unstable coalition government, led by Jeremy Corbyn,

propped up by the Liberal Democrats who wants to reopen the divisions of

the referendum, and Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. Every vote for the

Conservatives will make it harder for opposition politicians who want

to stop me getting the job done. Prime Minister is now have to get

the approval of Pollard before they can call a snap election, two that

MPs will be needed. This morning Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready for

the election fight. I welcome the opportunity for us to put the case

to the people of Britain to stand up against the Swiss government and its

failed economic agenda which has left our -- stand up against this

government and its failed economic agenda which has left our NHS in

trouble and 70 people uncertain. We want to put the case out there for a

society that cares for all, an economy that works for all and the

Brexit that works for all. The First Minister of Scotland said the Prime

Minister was trying to force through a so-called hard Brexit. The Prime

Minister's announcement today is all about the narrow interests of her

own party, not the interests of the country overall. She seized the

opportunity given the disarray in the ranks of the Labour Party to

crush her opposition, get rid of people who disagree with her and

give herself free hand to take the country in the increasingly

right-wing direction she wants to take it into. The Lib Dems will

fight against the government's strategy for the exit. It is an

opportunity for the people of this country to decide that they do not

want a hard Brexit, they want to keep us in the single market, and it

is an opposition in this country that we desperately need. The Ukip

leader Paul Nuttall welcomed the general election but make no

mistake, he said, this was a decision driven by the weakness of

Labour, not the good of the country. Labour goes into this election very

long way behind the Tories in the opinion polls. Labour MPs in

marginal seats are likely to be sweating at what could be seen as an

audacious political ambush by Theresa May. So she has rolled the

dice, she is confident she will win but politics has never been more

unpredictable and a lot can happen in a six-week campaign.

I am joined by our assistant political editor, Norman Smith, now.

Let's start with the scale of the surprise, there was no inkling that

she was going to announce this. We were all taken by surprise, in part

because Mrs May has repeatedly said she was not going to call a snap

election. She has broken that promise, let us be clear, because of

Brexit. She believes she needs a united strong hand in the

forthcoming negotiations. She wants to pitch herself as the Brexit

candidate in the Brexit election, chastising the opposition parties

and the House of Lords for weakening her negotiating stance. There is

also hard-headed calculation here. He had looked at the polling

numbers, some suggesting she has a 20 point lead over Jeremy Corbyn.

She would have to be the Mother Teresa of modern politics not to be

tempted to go for an election in those circumstances which could give

her a huge majority and enable her to achieve her own agenda in

Westminster, not be vulnerable to revolts by Tory MPs, she may well

have calculate it that now is as good as it is going to get. How much

of a gamble could this be? We have seen that nothing is certain in

politics any more. The only truth about politics now is that we live

in extraordinarily volatile, unpredictable, uncertain times.

Nobody predicted David Cameron would win, nobody thought Jeremy Corbyn

would become leader of the Labour Party, nobody thought that the UK

was going to vote for Brexit, and not many people thought that Theresa

May was keen to be Prime Minister. We know that opinion polls, we are

all now questioning of them. One other thing we know is that Theresa

May has confounded us as a political leader. When she became Prime

Minister, we knew her as the rather cautious, careful, calculating Home

Secretary. As Prime Minister, she has proved a gambler,

extraordinarily bold, not just in dispatch in all of the Cameron Percy

support us, -- Decameron supporters, but now also going to this tremble

election. It is a risk but Theresa May has shown herself to be a

gambler. There will be a Commons votes

tomorrow. That makes it seven weeks and two

days if MPs agree to it, until the general election is held. Alex

Forsyth has been looking at what happens next.

It was almost two years ago when the country last had its say on the kind

of government it once. Have a nice day! Then, David Cameron at the

helm, campaigning on the economy, the NHS, and with a promise to hold

a referendum on EU mentorship. That was a decision that led to his

resignation when the country backed Brexit. I think the country requires

fresh leadership to take it in this direction. So Theresa May took over

and pledge from the start to honour the referendum result. Brexit means

Brexit and we are going to make a success of it. Despite her slim

majority in the Commons, she repeatedly said there would not be

an early election. I cannot bring to be calling a snap election, I have

been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability

to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have

that election in 2020. But with such a slim majority in the House of

Commons, Parliamentary battles over exit beckoned. Theresa May want a

mandate, but will have to overcome the rule which says elections can

only be held every five years. To get around the Fixed-term

Parliaments Act, there must be a vote of no-confidence in the

government or two thirds of the need to vote in favour of it. Tomorrow,

Theresa May will seek a general election on June the 8th, she will

almost certainly get the backing she needs. She hopes to increase support

for her Brexit plan from across the country and among her MPs, but

general elections are also always a risk. Although the Labour Party are

in a dire position in the opinion polls, a lot of their seats are safe

one. If the opinion polls were to narrow drink the course of the

campaign, we should bear in mind that Theresa May is now going for a

vote Conservative for my vision of Brexit, and that is going to make

some conservative voters unhappy. If that lead where to narrow, we could

discover that she would get a rather small majority than she is hoping

for. So once again, who holds control here and with how much clout

will be for the country to decide. In a moment we will be speaking

to out correspondents But first our Scotland

correspondent, Lorna We have heard from the Scotland

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has called it one of the most

extraordinary U-turns in recent political history. She has. She was

sharing her weekly cabinet meeting this morning behind me, that took

place before Theresa May made her statement but we are told Nicola

Sturgeon was watching as she announced her decision to call a

snap general election. She said that this was a huge political

miscarriage elation on the part of Theresa May and it showed --

miscalculation on the part of Theresa May and it showed that she

was putting the interests of her party ahead of those of her country.

You can see how the debate will be framed in Scotland, the SNP saying

this will be a chance to reject the narrow divisive policies as they see

it of the Conservatives, the SNP want 56 out -- they won 56 seat out

of 59 in the last election, they will be hoping to repeat that this

time. All of the parties will be scrabbling to find candidates

quickly with an election just a short distance in the future. We

have also had reaction from the Scottish Conservatives, the second

party here in Scotland, they say they are organised, optimistic and

they say that this will send a strong message if you vote for the

Conservatives here in Scotland, that they would oppose the plans for a

second independence referendum. In Scotland, it is about a second

referendum for independence. Our Ireland correspondent,

Chris Page, is in Belfast. Parties in Northern Ireland are now

going into their fourth election campaign in a little over two years.

It is less than two months since there was a snap election to the

Northern Ireland assembly which was brought about by the collapse of the

devolved government in January, which resulted in the Unionists

losing their overall majority and Sinn Fein came within a whisker of

toppling the DUP as the largest group in Stormont. That result and

the ongoing Brexit debate has led to more torque about whether a united

Ireland could be possible one day. This general election will be

perhaps about unionism versus nationalism more than ever before.

In the last 2015 election, the two main Unionist parties formed a pact

to avoid splitting the vote and that secured two seat which would have

probably gone to non-unionist candidates. The biggest question

will be whether the devolved and can be restored, there is no sign of a

deal and the prospect of another divisive election is unlikely to

encourage the parties to compromise. Cemlyn Davies is in

Cardiff for us now. Here in Wales, the Welsh First

Minister, Carwyn Jones, has criticised the decision, calling it

odd. He thinks it is strange for the Prime Minister to call a general

election while there are another series of elections ongoing,

referring to the council elections going on in the glow over a

fortnight. Carwyn Jones doesn't believe a general election is in the

national interest. And the focus should be on Brexit and the economy

instead, he says. Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood says her party are ready

for the opportunity to show it can stand up for the people of Wales.

The leader of the Conservatives in Wales has welcomed the Prime

Minister's decision. As to what this could mean for Wales, Labour are

currently holds 25 of the 40 Welsh parliamentary seats. But the party

faces difficulties here, as it does across the UK. And the other

parties, particularly Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, will be

looking to capitalise on those difficulties. The Conservatives have

their best Welsh general election results two years ago. It is

difficult to see where they will make significant gains. Perhaps we

will get some more clues in two weeks and those Cancelo elections.

They have taken on greater political significance. Thank you all.

When it was announced this morning that Theresa May was going to make a

statement at Downing Street, nobody knew what she was going to say. The

markets felt a little nervous. Our Business Editor,

Simon Jack, is in the newsroom. What has been happening? Markets

generally don't like surprises. This was one of those. They have

stabilised now. The pound is actually stronger. I think people

realise there is an economic window of opportunity. The dire warnings of

what would happen to the economy after Brexit never came to pass.

Growth is solid. Record numbers of people in work. And wages are rising

faster than prices. That is expected to go the other way later in the

year. That is why this timing makes sense. Is Mrs would prefer a

government with a bigger majority to a smaller one. If that pans out,

that would be better for them. -- business would prefer a government

with a bigger majority. The focus will now turn to immigration, single

market tariffs etc, that Theresa May uses in the run-up to the election.

They will be focusing on what kind of Brexit she is looking for. That

will be the focus. Simon Jack, thank you.

We can find out how Europe is reacting to

Kevin Connolly is in Brussels for us.

What has the response been? Well of course, they are as surprised in

Brussels as everybody in London was by this snap announcement. You get a

sense of that from the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk,

who says Brexit is being directed by Hitchcock. First there is an

earthquake, then the tension rises. Perhaps that means that Donald Tusk

doesn't know an awful lot about the works of Alfred Hitchcock. It also

means there is a real sense in Brussels that when the dust has

settled on the British election, things will be different and the

temperature will have increased. That is because whoever wins in the

British election, it is assumed here that they will have had to have

given away something of their negotiating position in the whole

process of the election. So for that reason, things will be watched very

closely in Brussels. And whatever the result, the message is they are

ready to talk to whoever wins. Kevin Connolly in Brussels. Thank

you. We will be back to the main story shortly.

The US Vice President, Mike Pence, is meeting

the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo amid rising

tensions over the security threat from North Korea.

Mr Pence reaffirmed Washington's commitment to reining

in Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports.

North Korea is on a permanent war footing. The Qin dynasty that has

led the country for three generations as long denied -- relied

on exaggerating external threats to maintain power. But in recent days,

it has revealed new weapons, underlining its own thread to the

outside world. It is a threat the Trump administration seems to be

fading with new resolve. The US vice president in Japan today as part of

his Asian tour, is emphasising a single message. The year of

strategic patients with North Korea is over and the US is standing firm

with its regional allies. As the president himself would say if he

was here, I say to you and all the people of Japan we're with you 100%.

The focus is on a peaceful resolution to the North Korean

threat, but Japan says words alone may not be enough.

TRANSLATION: Of course, we should take a peaceful settlement of the

issue, but dialogue for the sake of dialogue is meaningless. It is

necessary to exercise pressure against North Korea to engage in

serious dialogue. North Korea's usual response to

pressure is defiance. It says it may carry out weekly missile tests and

would respond to an attack with nuclear weapons. President Trump

wants China to force a change of direction in Pyongyang. He says if

Beijing doesn't act, he will. But sanctions haven't worked and

military options are limited. We now have a situation where North Korea

and the United States have threatened dire repercussions if the

other ever makes a move. In this kind of situation it is possible to

make mistakes and they can be catastrophic. But equally, this is

the kind of balance of terror that held the war apiece during the Cold

War. North Korea is thought to be ready to conduct a sixth nuclear

test, something that could happen at any time. The USS carrier group is

steaming towards the Korean Peninsula. Both sides readying a

show of support. The question is, which side will blink first?

The Duke of Cambridge has said it's important for people to talk openly

about their mental health, and warned that no one should

His comments come after his brother, Prince Harry, disclosed that he'd

had counselling to help him come to terms with their mother's death.

Here's our Royal Correspondent, Peter Hunt.

Promoting better mental health is a family affair. After Prince Harry's

frank acknowledgement of the pain he suffered following their mother's

death, Prince William was at the BBC for a screening of a documentary on

the subject. Ten people affected by mental health issues united by one

goal, to run the London Marathon. I feel like I won't be able to do it.

Kate, William and Harry want mental health treated like physical health.

I really think this is a pivotal moment. I feel we are on the cusp of

something really big. I am keen to continue covering mental health and

trying to make that change. As you can see, I have my own reasons for

being involved in mental health. What happened to me, my mother, when

I was younger. Rhiannon's one-year-old son died five years

ago. Her husband, who blamed himself, took his own life. Her

story features in the programme presented by Nick Knowles. The more

people we can get to talk about mental health, the better. Silence

is killing people. It really is as bad as that. I should stop talking

now. Meeting the runners, confronting their adversity and

watching the programme left William feeling quite emotional, he said.

Then its challenges the race in six days. All the best for Sunday. Peter

Horne, BBC News. -- Peter Hunt. Let's get more now on the news that

Theresa May has announced plans to call a general election

for the 8th of June. That is in just over seven weeks.

She said, as she stood out here, that Labour, the Liberal Democrats

and the Scottish National Party, and some members of the House of Lords,

she accused them of weakening our negotiating position in talks with

the European Union over Brexit. Christian Fraser looks

at some of the data ahead OK, let's look at general election

2015 to remind ourselves. This was the map. The Conservatives took 331

seats. A majority of 12. 99 more seats than Labour, who were

practically wiped off the map in Scotland. This is the only seat of

their health, Edinburgh South. It was a difficult election for the

Liberal Democrats, who were wiped out in the south-west. They returned

with just eight seats. Let's compare that then to the referendum in 2016.

You can see the map looks broadly the same. Conservative areas Broad

-- voting broadly in favour of Brexit. North Wales, the Northwest,

Northeast, the Labour heartland going for Brexit. That will be the

for Jeremy Corbyn on the doorstep. Yes, the viewership is in favour of

Brexit, but not all MPs, and they are deeply divided over the terms of

Brexit they want. Let's look at the by-elections. This is a bright spot

for the Liberal Democrats. They overturned a whopping 23,000

majority that Zac Goldsmith was holding. He stood as an independent.

Sarah Olney took it from him. Richmond Park, a very pro-Remain

area. This is a very big Brexit area. Stoke-on-Trent Central. It was

a Labour hold. They can hold Brexit areas. They saw off a strong

challenge from Paul Nuttall. The dark spot for them was Copland. This

was the first time a sitting government had won a by-election

since 1984, and Labour had represented that seat for more than

80 years. A big pro Brexit area went to Brexit. There are things all the

parties will have to bear in mind. They will look at that Brexit map

for clues. There are other things they will have to think about. Voter

fatigue. We have had three UK wide elections in three years. There have

been elections in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, three in Northern

Ireland in little over a year. Then they will have to think about how

the population splits. There are very differing views among different

age groups. Young people, you can see in blue, went for a Remain.

Older people in red went for a Leave. However these groups of

people going to vote in a new general election? We don't know.

They may be some clues in that for all the parties.

What are people going to make of the fact there is now going to be a

final -- another general election in few weeks?

A Labour seat was taken from the Liberal Democrats in 2015.

It is an interesting seat. Historically Bristol West was a

Conservative seat. Then it went Lib Dem. Last election when Labour. The

greens were second. We thought it was an interesting place to come

today to find out how people are thinking. This is a diverse

constituency. People tend to be quite politically active and

engaged. We took some of them by surprise and asked them what they

thought, starting with Brenda. You are joking? Not another one! For

God's sake, honestly, I can't stand this. There is too much politics

going on at the moment. Why does she need to do it. --? She says it

produces clarity, sort things out? I thought she said that initially when

she took over. No, I disagree with this entirely. You excited about

another election? No, not another one. It's too much. It's great news.

It means we can get her out. It is what the people want. You ready for

another election? Yeah, we need one. Question was talking about potential

voter fatigue. That is a snapshot of people here. -- Kristian. A lot of

people taken by surprise, not just voters but party workers who were

out canvassing ahead of local elections. All of a sudden they are

having to think about how a general election fits into their campaigning

strategy. Leaflets to produce, posters to go up. Candidates to

select in some cases. If the Prime Minister work wanted to cause a

surprise, she has succeeded. Thank you.

This is going to be the Brexit election, isn't it? It is. Mrs May

wants to pitch it as such. She wants to pitch herself as the Brexit

candidate standing up for the Brexit electorate against the doubters at

Westminster. She is almost pitching herself slightly as the

anti-Westminster candidate standing up for the true voice of Brexit. It

is all to God be extraordinarily difficult for Labour to turn this

into an election about the NHS, social care, anti-austerity. In some

ways it seems to me there are analogies with Mrs Thatcher's 1983

Falklands election, when Labour had a leader who were struggling. And

again they found it very difficult to move away from that huge

Falklands factor. I suspect it may be similar this time. That said,

Brexit remains an incredibly divisive issue. And the risk for Mrs

May is that there are still many, many people passionately opposed to

Brexit. We saw that in the Richmond by-election, when the Conservative

MP, Zac Goldsmith, sought to get re-elected and was defeated because

the Lib campaigned on Brexit. There will be many Tory MPs in Remain

constituencies who will be deeply anxious that Mr -- Mrs May has

underestimated the residual disillusionment of Brexit. There is

a huge risk for Mrs May in case she has miscalculated the strength of

feeling, not just on the Brexit side, but also on the Remain side.

Thank you. Time for the weather

now with Louise Lear. Good afternoon. I'm sure gardeners

and growers not particularly happy that I am starting with a picture of

frost. It is good to be one of the talking point this week. Take a look

at the overnight lows we had. This morning, -6 in Scotland.

Temperatures across the nation just below freezing. At this time of the

year, add some sunshine and temperatures do recover. Where we

have got clear skies by day, we're going to see those temperatures

falling away overnight. Tuesday night across England and Wales is

glad to be another cold, potentially frosty one. Put another way, take a

look at yesterday's satellite picture. More clout in England and

Wales. Clear skies through Scotland and Northern Ireland. Cloud cover is

the issue. More in the north-west. With clear skies across England and

Wales, it will fall quite chilly. Let's enjoy the sunshine while we

can. For the rest of the afternoon, quite pleasant. 11 to 13 degrees

with a light breeze. Perhaps a nagging breeze making it feel chilly

with some isolated showers. A good slice of sunshine into eastern

Scotland. Clouding over through Northern Ireland and into north-west

Scotland. A week weather front will produce outbreaks of rain by the end

of the afternoon. But that blanket of cloud will continue to drift its

way across Scotland and Northern Ireland through the night.

Elsewhere, we keep the clear skies. It will be a quiet night.

Temperatures expected to fall away quite sharply. Not so maybe in towns

and city centres. But in rural spots we're likely to see lows of -3 to

minus four degrees. There will at least be some lovely spelt of

sunshine again across much of England and Wales. Clouding over a

little in North Wales and Northern Ireland, with the week weather

front. North-east Scotland brightening and warming up a little

bit here. 11 to 15 degrees the overall high on Wednesday. It is a

quiet theme of weather. We start on Thursday with clear skies, a chilly

start. Some sunshine. A good deal of dry weather. Shaurya outbreaks of

rain in the far north and west. These week weather fronts trying to

squeeze their way through the North Sea, not having much of an impact.

High-pressure hanging in there. That basically means we continue with

this drive theme in the next few days. Some sunny spells and perhaps

some warmth into the London area. We keep a little more in the way of

cloud and drizzle. The main story this lunchtime, the

Prime Minister has called for a snap general election to be held on

Thursday, Julie. She says she had recently and reluctantly reached the

decision that a vote was needed to see the UK through Brexit and

beyond. At this moment of enormous national significance, there should

be unity here in Westminster. But instead, there is division. The

country is coming together, but Westminster is not. There will be

plenty more coverage of this story throughout the afternoon on BBC

News. But for me in Downing Street, it's goodbye.