Corbyn: Labour MPs will vote for an early election if May wants to call one

Jeremy Corbyn will demand Labour MPs vote for an early general election if Theresa May says she wants to go the country in 2017.

The Labour leader said he will let May rip up the Tories’ plan for five-year parliaments and call an early poll if she seeks a mandate for her handling of Brexit.

Corbyn’s bold call – which has echoes of the pressure David Cameron piled on Gordon Brown when the then prime minister flirted with an election in 2007 – comes despite a year of weak poll ratings for Labour and poor performances in recent by-elections in Richmond Park and Sleaford.

Today Corbyn struck a bullish tone when he said the party was “ready” for a national vote after turning round its financial position – following two leadership elections.

“If she [May] calls an election, she calls an election,” Corbyn said.

“We’re ready for it. We’ve got more members than we’ve ever had before, we’ve paid off all our debts to the party, we don’t have any mortgages, we are in a very strong, organised position.”

Corbyn’s intervention comes as he aims to lead a less divided party in 2017. After he won a second contest this summer several high-profile backbenchers said the leadership issue had been “settled” while in September it emerged that Corbyn was putting the party on a general election footing.

If May decides to go to the country to seek backing for her handling of Brexit then she would need to achieve the support of two-thirds of MPs to overturn the Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011.

When Corbyn was asked if he would instruct his MPs to overturn the act dissolve parliament, he told The Independent: “I personally am slightly sceptical about the Fixed-Term Parliaments Acts anyway… she has not said she’s going to do that but that is what I’m saying is one possibility.

“If there’s a vote to dissolve Parliament then obviously we will vote with it.”

May has insisted she will not call an early election but many MPs from across the Commons believe she is keeping her options open in light of poll ratings which have consistently handed the Tories a double-digit lead. Last month Corbyn told LabourList that the party’s mass membership would help it boost its popularity across the country with campaigns on the NHS and fighting austerity.