What has motivated the UK's Prime Minister Theresa May to call a snap general election?

Theresa May is not the first political leader to have orchestrated a complete U-turn on major policies, nor will she be the last. Despite having stated there would be no early election on several occasions she has seen an opportunity to consolidate her own power; her motivation for going to the polls a mere two years into a five-year parliamentary term is down to party politics, stabilising the government line on Europe, and rounding on the perceived weakness of opposition to the Tories in England.

Brexit came about as a result of an internal squabble within the Conservatives, and was widely seen as that party's dominant centre-right faction (including former PM David Cameron, former Chancellor George Osborne and, ironically, former Home Secretary Theresa May) calling the bluff of their Eurosceptic rightwingers. The result of the EU vote seemed to come as a surprise to everyone. The populist UKIP party certainly made the loudest celebratory noises, before it had time to sink in that their entire raison t'etre had just dissipated. May has given her main reason for the snap election as seeking to strengthen her hand during the Article 50 negotiations given the ongoing arguments about the terms of the exit and the numerous dissenting voices in Parliament (the rightwing media's 'saboteurs.')

If the UK's future is uncertain May must accept some of the blame for this. After all, she was a Remainer who is now steamrollering ahead with such a major constitutional issue on the back of what was merely an 'advisory poll'. In addition, this policy is ignoring huge segments of the UK population, not least the majority of the voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland who chose to remain. The constitutional faultline between Scotland and England - so rudimentally plastered over during the 2014 independence referendum by Gordon Brown's vague 11th hour promises of more federalism - has never loomed so ominously for those Scots clinging to the Union. But it would seem that this is a minor consideration for May and her vision of making Britain great again.