London - 25 October 2019

1. Westminster Bridge and Palace of Westminster in the background

2. Various of central London streets near palace of Westminster

11. Jill Rutter, political analyst, during interview

12. Jill Rutter, political analyst, during interview

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jill Rutter, Senior research fellow at the 'UK in a Changing Europe' initiative:

"Part of the strategy I think is to say that both opposition parties are blocking Brexit and potentially blocking an election. The second one is, although he is giving more time, he's not giving that much more time and he is very keen I think to ensure that there is minimum parliamentary scrutiny of his deal and minimises the chance that the bill that he is using to put the Withdrawal Agreement into UK law will be amended as it goes through both the Commons and Lords. So, he is basically trying to crystallise something where those Labour MPs who supported him at second reading will be force to have a choice of whether do they actually go through the lobbies with him on third reading."

14. Brexit party signs

15. Brexit party signs and various flags

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Jill Rutter, Senior research fellow at 'UK in a Changing Europe' initiative:

"Quite a lot of his (Jeremy Corbyn, Labour party leader) MPs generally think that we need to sort Brexit first - need to sort Brexit either by parting from the Withdrawal Agreement bill if you are in a leave seat or actually getting Parliament to finally agree to a referendum. But there are quite a lot of others who are doing this sort of electoral calculation saying, 'we are way behind in the opinion polls - why on earth are we allowing the conservatives to have an election when they seem to be doing quite well and might have a post deal bounce? We seem to be doing quite badly so we would lose,' and open up the way to a majority Johnson government."

17. Various of London Eye and people walking by

18. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Deon, French citizen who lives in London:

"I think it is getting a bit complicated in (on) our (French) side of the Brexit. It is getting long and people don't know what to think anymore and I'm not sure another election, an early election would be the solution. I don't know. I don't know what is going on actually. I think people don't understand and they don't know where it's going to go right now."

19. Various street scenes

20. SOUNDBITE (English) John McCulley, lives in London:

"I think the only way forward is there has to be another election because it is the only possible way of finding a way forward."

21. Various of River Thames and Palace of Westminster

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that the only way to break Britain's Brexit impasse was a general election. Johnson said he would ask lawmakers to vote Monday on a motion calling a national poll for December 12.

To hold an election Johnson must win a vote - by a two-thirds majority - among lawmakers. That looked like a tough task, with the main opposition Labour Party saying it would only back an election once the risk of Britain crashing out of the EU on October 31 - its scheduled departure date - had been removed.

Jill Rutter, a political analyst with UK in a Changing Europe, says of the Prime Minister's hopes for an election, "although he is giving more time, he's not giving that much more time and he is very keen I think to ensure that there is minimum parliamentary scrutiny of his deal."

Rutter says a split in the Labour Party over whether to allow an election or not is due to two very different view points on strategy going forward.

"Quite a lot of his (Jeremy Corbyn's) MPs generally think that we need to sort Brexit first—need to sort Brexit either by parting from the Withdrawal Agreement bill if you are in a leave seat or actually getting Parliament to finally agree to referendum. But there are quite a lot of others who are doing this sort of electoral calculation saying, 'we are way behind in the opinion polls why on earth are we allowing the conservatives to have an election when they seem to be doing quite well and might have a post deal bounce?"

Parliament has already dealt Johnson a series of setbacks, and derailed his promise to take Britain out of the EU by the end of the month.

The most recent blow came Tuesday, when lawmakers blocked Johnson's attempt to fast-track an EU divorce bill through Parliament in a matter of days, saying they needed more time to scrutinise the legislation.