UK correspondent for the news website Politico, Emilio Casalicchio, told N1 that in the upcoming election campaign PM Boris Johnson will focus on delivering Brexit while likely avoiding other pressing issues. He also commented on who will be Britain's Commissioner in the new EU Commission, and also what's next for the outgoing House Speaker John Bercow.

Asked about whether the snap election on December 12 might return a new Parliament held in a better grip by PM Boris Johnson, Casalicchio said that the outcome is up in the air, and drew parallels with an earlier snap election in 2017 called by PM Theresa May and which had backfired.

“Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say. The polls at the moment, they indicate that Boris Johnson will get a majority, maybe a majority of something like 30 or 40, something along those lines. However, anything can change ion the campaign. In 2017 we had a surprisingly similar situation, where we had an election that was framed about being Brexit-centered. Labour were much further behind in the polls, Theresa May was high in the polls, but the campaign changed everything. The Conservatives released a damaging manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn did much better than expected, and in the end the Conservatives lost the majority that they had and we ended up with a hung Parliament. So looks like it could be good news for Boris Johnson at the moment, but in the next five weeks anything could happen, anything could change,” Casalicchio explained.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, is likely to try to move the focus of their campaign from Brexit to other issues like public services.

“Jeremy Corbyn today asked all six of his questions in Parliament about the NHS. That’s the safe Labour ground, the kind of thing he likes to campaign on… So he will try to campaign on that because Labour’s position on Brexit is a little bit unsure. What they want to do is renegotiate the Brexit deal and then put it to the public in a referendum. So it’s not as clear, an easy argument to make, compared to argument that Boris Johnson wants to make,” Casalicchio said.

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