Conservative MPs in Kent are today expected to line up behind efforts by Boris Johnson to call for a general election just weeks before Christmas.

A vote on a snap poll will take place later, but it is widely-expected to be defeated as any change to what is known as the Fixed Terms Parliament Act - which sets out the electoral cycle - requires the support of two-thirds of MPs and Labour has indicated it will oppose the move.

The debate follows confirmation the EU is to grant the UK a further three-month extension to get a Brexit deal, meaning that there will not be a no-deal Brexit this week.

Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch said a poll was now the only way to break the deadlock in parliament over Brexit.

“Like turkeys voting for Christmas, MPs don’t really want an election but we have complete deadlock in parliament and something has to happen," she said.

"I am ready to fight it... at the end of the day, something has to happen to deliver Brexit.

"Most Kent voters voted to leave the EU but we can't deliver it because it is being stopped at every turn... that is something I and the public is getting increasingly annoyed about.

"If the only way we can change that is to have an election, then bring it on."

Her comments were echoed by the Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson, who said: "At the moment, we have a parliament that is paralysed; we are sleep walking to a disaster.

"The only way in which we can change that is to have a general election.

"It is quite obvious that there are a group of remain-supporting MPs who are determined to stop Brexit."

There was also support for an election from Antony Hook, Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England, who said: "This extension is a stake through the heart of Boris Johnson's monstrous Halloween Brexit.

"The British people must now be given the power to exorcise this demon by exercising their right to vote to remain in the European Union through a general election."

University of Kent's political expert shares his thoughts on a Brexit extension with KMTV

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has separately announced a proposal for an election by tabling a motion calling for new legislation.

It is unclear at this stage whether the proposal would be backed by the Conservative party, which initially dismissed the idea.

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