Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won MPs' backing for a general election on 12 December.
Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of a Commons debate on an early election. Photo: AFP
Members of parliament backed an early election by 438 votes to 20. The legislation still has to go through the House of Lords.
The prime minister could only hold an election with the support of MPs - who had blocked it three times.
Efforts by opposition MPs to lower the voting age to 16 and allow EU nationals to take part failed, removing one major potential obstacle as the prime minister's office had said it would abandon the legislation if the franchise was altered at such a late stage.
Mr Johnson introduced legislation for a 12 December general election to end what he casts as a nightmare "paralysis" that is frustrating any Brexit outcome at all.
Labour - backed by the other opposition parties - called for the poll to be held three days earlier on 9 December. The parties argued this would ensure that university students would be more likely to be able to take part because it would still be in term time. That was narrowly rejected by 315 votes to 295.
Jeremy Corbyn Photo: AFP / PRU
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had cleared the way for a general election after a meeting of the shadow cabinet when he said the "time for debate was over".
Mr Corbyn said he had changed his mind on a snap election after the European Union gave the UK another Brexit extension.
"I have consistently said that we are ready for an election and our support is subject to a no-deal Brexit being off the table," he said.
He was cheered by members of his top team, as he made his announcement at Labour's campaign headquarters in central London.
However, not all Labour MPs were on board, with Ben Bradshaw saying it was a "bad mistake" and calling instead for another referendum on Brexit. His fellow backbench MP, Barry Sheerman, tweeted that it was "sheer madness" to hold a December election "on Boris Johnson's agenda".
What is the government's plan?
If the bill passed, Mr Johnson was expected to address Tory MPs soon after in Westminster.
Speaking earlier in the Commons, the prime minister claimed an early election was the inevitable consequence of Parliament's decision to thwart his Brexit bill.
He said only a "refreshed and revitalised" Parliament could implement the 2016 referendum result and opposition to an election had "begun to crack" in the past few days.
It would be fourth time lucky for Mr Johnson, who has previously failed on three occasions to get Parliament's approval for an election.
Crucially, the legislation the PM proposed required only a simple majority of MPs while, in the past, he has sought to use the Fixed-term Parliament Act, which requires the support of two-thirds of all 650 MPs to go through.
- BBC / Reuters
