REDDITCH residents will go to the polls on Thursday, December 12 after MPs rubber stamped a General Election at the fourth time of asking.
Just 24 hours after snubbing the prospect of a pre Christmas poll, MPs voted for the United Kingdom’s third General Election in a little over four years by a margin of 438 votes to 20 last night (Tuesday).
A Labour bid to hold the election on Monday, December 9 was rejected by 315 votes to 295 meaning borough voters will be asked to cast their ballots in the first December election in 96 years should the bill, as expected, pass through the House of Lords unamended.
The last pre Christmas vote on December 6, 1923 saw the Conservatives under Worcestershire’s own Stanley Baldwin win the most seats in a hung parliament thanks to the efforts of Labour’s Ramsey MacDonald and H Asquith’s reunited Liberal Party.
It was the last general election in which a third party, the Liberals, gained more than 100 seats or won more than 26 per cent of the vote.
Parliament is expected to be dissolved next Wednesday (November 6) for the campaign to begin in earnest.
