THERE is to be a General Election on December 12.

After three failed attempts by the current government to see an early General Election pushed through, Parliament voted once again on Tuesday, October 29, but this time chose to support an election for December 12.

Despite the next General Election not being due until June 2022, a vote of 438 MPS in favour of the Christmas-time election beat the 20 who voted against, with a majority of 418.

The General Election on December 12 comes three and a half years after the vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum.

Downing Street has confirmed that Mr Johnson will not seek any extension to the Brexit transition period if he is returned to No.10 in the General Election.

Under the Prime Minister’s proposed deal with Brussels, the UK will continue to follow EU rules after it has left the bloc until the end of 2020 to allow the two sides to negotiate a new trade deal.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the government would not be seeking any extension to that as Mr Johnson believed there was sufficient time to get a trade deal: “The government will not be extending the transition period. The Prime Minister believes that we will have a good trade deal agreed with the EU by December 2020,” the spokesman said. “The Brexit process has been going on for long enough.”

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has announced he will not be standing as a candidate as he believes he can better serve the cause by ‘traversing the length and breadth’ of the UK campaigning, instead of fighting to get elected in one constituency.

Mr Farage has said the Brexit Party will stand against the Tories in every British seat unless the Prime Minister abandons its Brexit deal with Brussels. Mr Johnson rejected Mr Farage’s offer.

On the other side of the table, the Liberal Democrats are not ruling out taking part in a ‘Remain’ electoral alliance in dozens of seats across the UK to boost the chances of denying Boris Johnson a majority.

Talks have been under way between the unequivocally pro-EU parties of the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens to boost the chances of electing anti-Brexit MPs.

The pact would see two of the three parties stand aside to favour the one with the best chance of victory.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson did not rule out a report that the pact could see an alliance across up to 60 seats in the December 12 election.

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn has told his warring shadow cabinet the debate over Labour’s position on Brexit is over.

The party says it will seek to negotiate a new deal with Brussels which it would then put to the public in a new referendum.

A number of senior figures, including shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, have suggested they would campaign for ‘Remain’ in that referendum.

However, Mr Corbyn said he had made clear at last week’s meeting of the shadow cabinet that any decision would wait until after the election.

Parliament will be dissolved for 25 days prior to the vote. Voting will take place on December 12.