The Conservative Party has recorded its highest level of support since early 2008, according to a poll conducted after Prime Minister Theresa May called for a snap general election on June 8.
The PM says she wants her hand strengthened in the Brexit negotiations.
In her first campaign visit, to a Labour marginal in Bolton, the Prime Minister told an invited audience: "There's a very clear choice at this election".
The German government says that it doesn't expect a British election in June to hold up talks on Britain's exit from the European Union. Following the coming into force of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 ("the 2011 Act"), the Prime Minister no longer enjoys the benefit of the Crown's prerogative powers to dissolve Parliament and call a new general election. "We need a general election and we need one now".
Michelle Thomson and Natalie McGarry, the two Nationalist MPs who resigned the SNP whip following separate police investigations, were among the MPs to vote against an election.
European Union officials say Britain's surprise election will not interrupt the bloc's preparations for Brexit talks _ though they will slightly delay the start of negotiations. "It's about ... getting the right deal from Europe".
Mr Corbyn has ruled out a coalition with the SNP after the general election.
Mrs May said she would not take part in any televised leaders' debates, leading to criticism from Mr Corbyn and other party leaders she was "running scared". "The British people voted previous year to leave the European Union. There can be no turning back".
Calling a snap election is a risk, as Robert Muldoon found in 1984.
Iraqi forces making new push toward Old City in Mosul
In addition to parts of western Mosul, IS also holds part of Iraq's Kirkuk province as well as areas in the country's west . The offensive is part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.
It would also allow Ms May - a campaigner against Brexit less than 12 months ago - to set her own, more moderate, Brexit agenda rather than be dictated to by her hardline Brexiteer backbenchers, as has been the case in recent months.
Opinion polls suggest May's Conservatives are enjoying a huge lead over Labour.
The Conservatives now hold 330 of the 650 seats.
Jeremy Corbyn will promise that a Labour government will "put the interests of the majority first" and oppose the "cosy cartel" running the United Kingdom as the left-wing leader delivers his first major speech of the general election campaign on Thursday (20 April).
May and her Brexit ministers face tough negotiations with Brussels to agree a deal for Britain after it leaves the EU.
She said: "At this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity in Westminster, but instead there is division".
"They want to unite together to divide our country and we will not let them do it".
"Our opponents believe that because the government's majority is so small, our resolve will weaken and that they can force us to change course. The result is not certain", she said in a speech at a GlaxoSmithKline factory in her constituency of Maidenhead.
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