I was just thinking about the way the British constituiton works. I know that it is in the hands of the PM to decide when Parliament is to be dissolved and a GE is to be called. But if a majority in Parliament wanted a snap election yet the PM was refusing to call one, then couldn’t they just pass a bill declaring an early election, which would bypass the PM due to the principle of parliamentary supremacy?

  • frankPodmore@slrpnk.netEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    As other people have pointed out, a vote of no confidence is the conventional way of doing this. Passing a bill is complicated and requires multiple readings, whereas a vote of no confidence is a single division.

    The House of Commons Library has a page on VONCs, with links to more information explaining exactly how they work. As the page explains, a VONC doesn’t have to lead to a general election, but it normally does.

    • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      5 months ago

      Oh, that makes sense. I was going to ask whether that means the Early General Election Act 2019 had to go through this complicated process too, but I see that Wikipedia says:

      The Act was fast-tracked in its passage through Parliament, meaning that it completed all of its stages in the House of Commons in a single day, on 29 October 2019, and received its formal First Reading in the House of Lords on the same day.