Defiant May rejects calls for early poll over Brexit

Bloomberg

Theresa May ruled out a return to the ballot box to settle the UK’s political stalemate over Brexit and hunkered down on her plans for leaving the European Union.
“It would not be in the national interest to have an election” before the scheduled Brexit date in March 2019, the prime minister told reporters en route to New York. She called a snap election in June 2017 in a political miscalculation that wiped out her Conservative majority.
In a challenge to Brexit hardliners, she insisted that leaving the bloc without a deal was preferable to the Canada-style free-trade agreement, which they favor as it would unequivocally put the country outside customs union and single market.
The idea of an early election caught fire after the Sunday Times said some of May’s aides had war-gamed a vote for November as a way of breaking the Parliament deadlock.
Though it was swiftly rejected by her office, rumours have persisted over what would be a major gamble; potentially bringing rebel Tory lawmakers into line, but giving the Labour Party what it wants most—a shot at power. Jeremy Corbyn has been campaigning as the “government-in-waiting’ ever since the last election.
May’s unequivocal tone comes as pressure builds ahead of the annual gathering of Conservatives, an occasion for her enemies to come out. She’s sticking to her proposal to keep close trade ties with the EU after Brexit—and her Cabinet did not raise visible objections. The so-called Brexiteers have urged her to take the EU up on its offer of a more limited trade deal based on the one Canada has.
Their informal leader, Boris Johnson, is likely to make a plea directly to the grassroots in Birmingham, where Tories will gather from Sunday.