The United Kingdom Parliament on Tuesday approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to hold a general election on December 12 amid a Brexit deadlock. The motion was passed by 438 votes to 20.
Legislation for the first December election since 1923 will now go to the House of Lords for consideration, where it is unlikely to be opposed.
Johnson said he hopes the election will give him a fresh mandate for his Brexit deal and break the current Parliamentary deadlock, which has led to the UK's exit from the European Union being further delayed to January 31, 2020.
The PM said it was time for the country to "come together to get Brexit done", as he left a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives held minutes after the vote. Johnson had tried and failed three times to get Parliament's backing for an early election. But on this occasion, MPs approved the necessary legislation after just six hours of debate.
Earlier on Tuesday, Labour and the smaller opposition parties shifted to supporting a December election with a stipulation that the Brexit Withdrawal Bill would not be brought up before Parliament was dissolved.
Despite more than 100 Labour MPs abstaining and 11 voting against an election, party leader Jeremy Corbyn led 127 Labour MPs in supporting an election.
"We always said we wanted an election but we wanted ‘no deal’ to be taken off the table,” Corbyn said at Parliament House on Tuesday. He added his party would "now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change that our country has ever seen".
