STEWART PATERSON

Political Correspondent

THERESA May has called a General Election in the interests to the Tory Party not the country, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister accused the Prime Minister of trying to “crush” opposition to her Brexit plan.

MPs voted yesterday to approve the plan for an election on June 8 just two years after the last election, and three years early with the parliament not due to end until 2020.

Ms May said she changed her mind with the looming Brexit talks in mind.

Nicola Sturgeon however said her decision to seek an early election, after repeatedly stating she had no intention of doing so, was purely for party political advantage.

Opinion polls put the Tories 20 points ahead of Labour and she is expected to increase her majority from 17.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Yesterday, it became clear beyond doubt that, for Theresa May, party comes before country. For months the Prime Minister has said that a snap, early election was, in her view, the last thing the country needed. Now was not the time, she said, to be distracted from the job at hand.”

The First Minister said Ms May wants to seize the opportunity to strengthen her power before people become more concerned about the Brexit plan as its implications emerge.

Ms Sturgeon added: “But yesterday, she changed her mind, not for the good of the country, but for simple party advantage.

“Her motive is clear. She knows that as the terms of her hard Brexit become clearer, the deep misgivings that so many people already have will increase and grow. So she wants to act now to crush parliamentary the parliamentary opposition that she faces. Labour’s self-inflicted weakness has presented the excuse.”

The Prime Minister easily secured the two thirds of MPs needed to approve the early election with 522 voting in favour and just 13 against. The SNP MPs abstained in the vote.

Nine Labour MPs voted against holding the election along with three independent MPs and one SDLP MP.

Ms May said the election was about “leadership and stability” ahead of the Brexit talks.

She said to wait until the scheduled date of 2020 would mean a campaign getting underway as the Brexit talks were reaching the conclusion.

She also said a strong mandate for her as Prime Minister and her plan to take Britain out of the EU would strengthen the UK in the negotiations with the EU.

The campaign effectively started once the Prime Minister announced her intention to seek Parliament approval for the election outside 10 Downing Street.

Ms Sturgeon travelled to London to be pictured with SNP MPs ahead of the Prime Minister’s statement in the House of Commons and the subsequent vote.

While Ms May wants a personal mandate from a UK majority for the Tories, Ms Sturgeon said a victory north of the border for the SNP strengthens her case for a second referendum, for which the Prime Minister has refused permission.

She added: “Make no mistake, if the SNP wins this election in Scotland, and the Tories don’t, then Theresa May’s attempt to block our mandate to hold another referendum when the time is right, will crumble to dust.”

Labour Scottish leader, Kezia Dugdale, was also in London meeting with UK party leader Jeremy Corbyn and attending the party’s National Executive Committee.

Ms Dugdale said the election was about who governs the United Kingdom.

She said: “This is a UK-wide election that will have major implications for Scotland, and only Labour or the Tories can form the next government.

“Only by voting Labour can we get rid of Theresa May and stop further cuts to public services.

“Scottish Labour will be putting forward a positive vision for a fairer UK that rejects both the Tories’ plans for a hard Brexit and the SNP’s plans for a divisive second independence referendum.”

The parties have begun the process of selecting the candidates for the poll in seven weeks time.

Ms Dugdale has started writing to Labour members asking them if they would like to consider being a candidate.

Labour is asking defeated candidates from the 2015 election if they wish to stand again which includes seven in Glasgow who lost their seats to the SNP.

Some high profile MPs will be standing down at the election. Former Chancellor George Osborne will not be seeking re-election to his Tatton Constituency after he took up a post as editor of the Evening Standard paper in London as well as other jobs.

Labour’s former, Home Secretary, Alan Johnson announced he would not be seeking re-election.

Meanwhile former Tory Chancellor, Ken Clarke who initially said he would step down in 2020 before the next election has said he will be standing in June. He has been an MP since 1970.