Shropshire Star

Shropshire Star comment: No mood for a new election

Aside from certain members of Jeremy Corbyn’s top team and a few deluded Momentum activists, does anyone in this country actually want another General Election?

Published

A snap poll this year would be the third time since 2015 that voters head to the ballot box, and it is little surprise that the reaction to such a prospect has been decidedly lukewarm.

The Labour leadership seems to believe that Tory failings on Brexit can propel Mr Corbyn and his hard left cabal into power – a slightly baffling conjecture considering the party’s own internal strife over the same issue.

That is not to mention the damage caused to Labour by the ongoing row over anti-Semitism among party members.

On the Labour backbenches – where sadly most of the party’s sensible MPs are stationed – there is little appetite for a General Election.

Like their Tory counterparts, they know full well the dangers of a return to the polls so soon after the 2017 snap election.

Far more importantly, the vast majority of the electorate have no desire for such a move.

People are rightly asking what exactly this would achieve.

Britain is due to leave the EU in less than three months time. So far the Government has made a mess of it, and the opposition has given no indication that it could do a better job. The mood on the streets is that our politicians have let us down.

They have bickered and squabbled over a clear instruction given to them two-and-a-half years ago, to the point where many people have now lost faith in our political system.

When Parliament returns after its Christmas break, MPs should be fully aware that they need to restore the level of goodwill.

There has been too much selfish politics in the last 12 months, whether it be from Conservative MPs trying to oust Theresa May to further their own ambitions, or Corbynites seeking a back door into power.

The task for our MPs when they return to the Commons is a simple one: get us out of the EU.

Any failure to do so will not be easily forgiven by the electorate.