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Corbyn ‘ready’ for second general election

Sunday, 11 June 2017 1:44 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 11 June 2017 3:03 PM ]

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn waves to supporters and the media after a strong showing in the general election. (File photo by AFP)

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the country needs to hold a second general election before spiraling down into a “period of great instability.”

Speaking to BBC on Sunday, Corbyn said the opposition party was ready to start campaigning again for another vote “anytime.”

“It's quite possible there could be an election perhaps this year or early next year,” he said. “And that might be a good thing because we cannot go on with a party of great instability.”

Corbyn made the remarks fresh off the general election on Thursday, where his attempts to reunify a seemingly disarrayed Labour paid off as the party increased its seats in the parliament and stripped the ruling Tories off their majority.

Corbyn headed into the make-or-break election holding only 229 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and came out with 262. This while the Tories went in with 330 and lost 12 seats in the process.

Despite still being in the minority, Corbyn has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to step down and clear the way for him to lead the UK's exit from the European Union (EU).

Front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election, June 9, 2017 (Photo by AFP)

On Sunday, Corbyn described May’s government as “chaotic” and said the election showed how popular Labour’s policy of “hope” was compared to the one offered by the Tory government.

“We are ready and able to put forward a serious program which obviously has massive support in this country,” he said.

“Remember this election campaign turned around a great deal on the basis that an awful lots of people rejecting the politics of fear and instead embracing the politics of hope.”

Noting that he could “absolutely” still be prime minister, Corbyn said he was planning to vote down May’s legislative agenda, known as Queen’s Speech, and put together an alternative of his own in order to win support for a minority government.

May, who called the snap vote in mid-April to “strengthen her hand” in Brexit talks, is now trying to save herself by forming a coalition government with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Experts say May has lost the parliamentary majority needed to lead the Brexit talks as she wanted.

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