Theresa May calls Commons vote for June general election

Theresa May is calling a vote of the Commons tomorrow to try and call a general election for 8th June.

In a statement she said that Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP have all pledged to block Brexit legislation and so the country should go to the polls to pass judgement on their plans.

The prime minister is absolutely right to say that a strong mandate is needed for Brexit in a general election but that isn't going to come from voting Conservative. She needs to call an election because so many of her own MPs are opposed to Brexit. The Conservatives have a majority in the Commons but they are a pro-EU party and there is absolutely no majority when it comes to a real disengagement from the EU - the so-called "hard Brexit" - that we will inevitably come to when the EU waste much of the next two years playing games.

The only way to make sure Brexit happens is with UKIP MPs in Parliament. Theresa May is a Remainer and she is surrounded by Remainers in her cabinet and on the back benches. Let's not forget that it has taken nine months just to trigger Article 50 during which time various legal challenges have been allowed to take place. This is no coincidence, the delay was deliberately calculated to give the Remainers an opportunity to block Brexit.

But it's not all about Brexit, the Tories are getting so many other things wrong. They are starving the NHS of cash whereas UKIP has a costed plan to give the NHS a cash injection. Immigration is at record levels and the Tories want to keep the door open whereas UKIP has the only credible immigration policy for a points-based immigration system that will control the quantity and quality of immigrants. Disabled people are losing the financial support they need to maintain their independence and support them into work whereas UKIP pledges to end the bedroom tax, end work capability assessments and remove the quotas for getting disabled people into work. Under the Tories, unemployment is going down but exploitative zero hour contracts are on the increase with no protection for employees whereas UKIP would ban exclusivity clauses in zero hour contracts and give employees the right to a permanent contract with fixed hours after a year.

If Theresa May's election gets voted through we have a relatively short time to tell voters why UKIP is not only relevant but desperately needed to steer the country through Brexit and into the world.