Britain is set to hold an early election on Dec. 12, after a bill authorizing the vote was passed by the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Lawmakers voted 438-20 in favour of the bill to give Prime Minister Boris Johnson the early election he craves. It will become law once approved by the unelected House of Lords, which does not have the power to overrule the elected Commons.
This means the U.K. is headed for its first December election since 1923.
Johnson pushed for a Dec. 12 vote in hope of breaking the parliamentary stalemate which has blocked his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union this month. The EU has granted a three-month Brexit extension until Jan. 31.
Johnson — who has had to abandon his vow to lead the U.K. out of the EU on Oct. 31 “do or die” — accused his opponents of wanting to prolong the Brexit process “until the 12th of never.”
He told lawmakers in Parliament earlier Tuesday that there was no choice but “to go to the country to break free from this impasse.”
Watch: Boris Johnson says early vote key to completing Brexit
“There is only one way to get Brexit done in the face of this unrelenting parliamentary obstructionism, this endless, wilful, fingers crossed, ‘not me guv’ refusal to deliver on the mandate of the people — and that is to refresh this Parliament and give the people a choice,” Johnson said.
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn had said his opposition party would vote in favour of an early election, because the prospect of crashing out of the EU without a deal had been taken off the table.
“For the next three months, our condition of taking no-deal off the table has now been met,” Corbyn said. “We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change our country has ever seen.”
“We’re going out there to win!” Corbyn told cheering supporters.
Lawmakers voted against changing the election date to Dec. 9, sticking with the government’s choice of Dec. 12.
Watch: Jeremy Corbyn talks about the expected early election
To win support from opposition parties, Johnson has shelved his contentious Brexit deal until after the election.
Earlier, a last-minute hitch to the government’s plan emerged when opposition parties announced plans to try to amend the terms of an early election to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 and expand the voting base to include citizens of the 27 other EU nations who are living in the U.K. But these amendments were excluded from Tuesday’s vote.
As Johnson moved closer to an election than he has ever been in his tumultuous three-month premiership, the EU warned the extension granted to the U.K.’s departure from the bloc might be its last.
“The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time,” outgoing European Council president Donald Tusk said on Twitter.
Johnson took office in July vowing to “get Brexit done” after his predecessor, Theresa May, resigned in defeat. Parliament had rejected her divorce deal three times, and the EU had delayed the U.K.’s scheduled March 29 departure, first to April, and then to the end of October.
Johnson, who said just weeks ago he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than postpone the U.K.’s leaving date past Oct. 31, was forced to seek the extension on Parliament’s orders to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which would damage the economies of both the U.K. and the EU.