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The UK is on course for the first winter general election in decades after MPs backed Boris Johnson’s legislation to pave the way for a snap poll on December 12. But it’s not a totally done deal yet.
Are we definitely having an election now?
Not quite.
Boris Johnson has been forced to get MPs’ approval for an election through legislation to get around the fixed term parliament act’s requirement for a two-thirds Commons majority of support, so the bill must now go to the House of Lords.
The government and opposition are expected to agree a timetable to ensure it passes within days.
But opposition parties also have a majority in the Lords, leaving the bill open to amendments.
Peers could attempt to bring forward the amendment on giving EU nationals the vote, which Commons deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle refused to select for debate on Tuesday, ruling it out of scope of the bill.
If peers do choose to amend the bill, it will have to return to the Commons, where MPs will choose whether to back the Lords’ changes.
Any controversial changes backed by MPs and the Lords could push the government into pulling the bill, and therefore ending the prospects of a December election.
Prolonged parliamentary ping-pong between the two houses could also see time run out for the bill to pass in time for a December election.
But realistically, the chances of the unelected Lords overturning MPs’ cross-party demands for an election, or insisting on amendments which could wreck the bill, appear slim.
When does it need to pass?
Parliament will need to dissolve on November 6 for an election on December 12.
That’s because the fixed term parliaments act sets out a 25 day period between dissolution and polling day.
This means that there is something of a race against time to get the bill through.
Does anything else need to happen in parliament?
John Bercow is due to stand down as Commons Speaker this Thursday October 31 - which was slated as Johnson’s ultimate Brexit deadline.
MPs will elect a new Speaker on Monday November 4 with Labour’s Lindsay Hoyle, Harriet Harman, Rosie Winterton and Tory Eleanor Laing among the frontrunners.
Whoever wins will preside over the Commons when it sits again after a general election.
What about the next election?
Whoever loses or ends up locked out of Number 10 come December faces a long wait until they can have another go.
The fixed term parliaments act makes May 2024 the next conventionally scheduled date for another election.
But of course, given politics recently, and the third election in four years - anything could happen.