Brexit is going very wrong, but a snap election is the last thing the British public needs

Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

British Prime Minister Theresa May looks back as she and other leaders depart following the family photo on the second day of an informal summit of leaders of the European Union on September 20, 2018 in Salzburg, Austria. 

The Sunday Times reported that two senior aides within May’s Downing Street team had responded to her “summit humiliation” last week by suggesting that an early general election in November could help save both her leadership and her job.

The newspaper said that one unnamed senior aide said to another Tory strategist: “What are you doing in November? Because I think we are going to need an election.” For its part, Downing Street has denied the reports as “categorically untrue.”

Labour certainly seems to be preparing for another possible vote, although whether it’s a snap election or a second Brexit referendum is the big question. As the party holds its annual conference in Liverpool, the spotlight is on what leader Jeremy Corbyn — known for his ambivalence toward the EU — thinks.

Pressed on the issue of another referendum (a tricky one for Labour, with many of its supporters voting for Brexit) by the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday, Corbyn said he would back party members if they wanted another EU vote, although he said he’d prefer to have a general election.

Senior Labour party member Emily Thornberry also suggested recently that she was confident that a general election would happen in the fall or in spring 2019.

U.K. voters are likely to be spluttering into their cups of tea at the prospect of another vote on either Brexit or another general election so soon after 2017’s snap vote. As we all know, the British public punished what it perceived to be an arrogant move by May in calling last year’s election and it cost the Conservatives their majority in parliament.

That vote showed that U.K.’s voters are more than ready and willing to deliver a bloody nose to the political establishment given half the chance — especially when it is a suspected political ploy or power grab. There’s every likelihood they’d do so again if another snap election is called.