Theresa May: EU trying to influence General Election with threats
Written by News on 03/05/2017
Theresa May has accused European politicians and officials of seeking to influence the result of the election through threats.
The Prime Minister said the UK’s position had been misinterpreted and the European Commission’s position had hardened.
"The events of the last few days have shown that whatever our wishes and however reasonable the positions of Europe’s other leaders, there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed, who do not want Britain to prosper," she said.
Mrs May was speaking after an audience with the Queen to mark the dissolution of Parliament.
Although MPs left Westminster last Thursday, Parliament was only officially dissolved a minute after midnight on Wednesday morning, 25 working days before polling day on 8 June.
Historically, a prime minister has had to ask the monarch to dissolve Parliament.
However, the 2011 Fixed-Term Parliaments Act made this process automatic, removing the royal prerogative.
Every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant once Parliament is dissolved – and there are no MPs until they are chosen at the General Election.
Government ministers retain their roles and continue their work however.
MPs are allowed access to Parliament for just a few days in which to remove papers from their offices, and facilities provided by the Commons are no longer available to them from 5pm on the day of dissolution.
The election campaign itself has been in full swing for more than two weeks now, with the Conservatives warning on Wednesday that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would unleash "economic chaos" on the country.
The Tories claim there is a £45bn black hole in Labour’s spending plans, but shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Government was guilty of "lies".
Brexit has inevitably been featuring as well, with reports the UK could be asked to pay as much as €100bn (£84.5bn) as part of its divorce settlement with the EU.
Meanwhile, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has said talks on Britain’s exit will not be concluded "quickly and painlessly".
(c) Sky News 2017: Theresa May: EU trying to influence General Election with threats
