Its leader Jeremy Corbyn said the election "gives the British people the chance to vote for a Labour government that will put the interests of the majority first".
Sterling's rally since May's has been partially driven by a belief in the markets that May increasing her majority will allow her to take a more conciliatory stance on Brexit, and move away from the sort of Brexit favoured by hardline Conservative MPs, who now have a disproportionate influence on policy thanks to the party's slim majority.
May continues to be the favored choice for prime minister, with 54 percent of people preferring her to Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, who is backed by 15 percent of voters.
During the speech Corbyn repeatedly took pot shots at what he described as the "establishment" - the elite, the City, tax dodgers and much of the media - who believed that electoral success was only possible if their rules were played by. Now the party has no MPs at Westminster.
Last year's vote to leave the European Union split Labour's traditional supporter base, which is divided between typically pro-EU inner city voters, especially in London, and working-class voters in less affluent areas who voted for Brexit.
"Theresa May didn't need to call this election".
Meanwhile Theresa May felt confident enough to withdraw from a leaders' debate, saying she'd rather speak to people on the doorstep.
Plan to carry out six executions in Arkansas thrown into doubt
Thirty-one states now administer the death penalty, and lethal injection is the primary means of execution in all of them. Circuit Judge Alice Gray has stopped the state's use of vecuronium bromide until she can determine the rightful owner.
"We face an unfettered out-of-control Conservative government".
Why? Because those are the people who are monopolising the wealth that should be shared by each and every one of us in this country'.
One former Labour MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews announced plans to defect to the Liberal Democrats. "Vote for strong and stable leadership this country needs".
Calling an early election was a "smart move", says Nicholas Wapshott in NewsWeek. Markets are hoping this majority would bring in policy stability and reduce uncertainty in the Brexit negotiations and also give May more leeway in adopting a pragmatic approach to negotiations without having to give in to the whims of the proponents of "Hard Brexit" within her own party.
However, says Stephen Bush in the New Statesman, the general public "tend to resent snap elections and turnout may drop".
Alex Massie in The Spectator believes the general election will first and foremost be a vote on Scottish independence, saying "May can not win a mandate for herself while then denying a mandate to the party that wins the Scottish portion of this election".
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon seemed to take on this line of argument by describing May's decision "a huge political miscalculation".
Comments