It would be the first December British election in 100 years and there would be a five-week campaign by parties up to polling day.

Irish shares and Government bond yields fell today as a political manoeuvre by UK prime minister Boris Johnson was seen as boosting the chances of a crash-out Brexit at Halloween and an early British election.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney and British prime minister Boris Johnson have begun the latest final stretch in the Brexit diplomatic marathon as the pair rather aptly flying off in completely different directions.

British prime minister Theresa May has been warned her last-ditch plea to extend next Friday’s Brexit deadline will be rejected within 48 hours unless she can explain exactly how the extra time will be used.

What now after House of Commons rejects Theresa May’s new proposals?

On Monday night, British prime minister Theresa May travelled to Strasbourg for the latest last ditch Brexit deal talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Nothing was said to dent Leo’s happiness. He could not stop smiling, and neither could his proud mother and father... Once the vote was passed, the family were engulfed by well-wishers from all sides of the floor, writes Lise Hand. 

Incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned the British government not to get “too close” to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) amid fears that the make-shift Westminster coalition could put the Good Friday Agreement at risk.

But the incoming Taoiseach has warned that Theresa May's Government cannot get "too close" to any party in Northern Ireland.

Following the Second World War and the IRA bombing campaign, the Blitz spirit lives on in new generation of Britons, writes Peter Apps.

British prime minister Theresa May’s calling for a snap general election creates fresh uncertainty for Ireland in the wake of Brexit, Housing Minister Simon Coveney has warned.

Enda Kenny has congratulated David Cameron on his UK General Election victory, a prisoner has been found dead in his cell at Mountjoy Prison, a priest in Donegal has said he will be voting Yes in the Marriage Equality Referendum and Floyd Mayweather has branded Manny Pacquiao a “coward”. Catch up with this evening’s top and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

It’s all been pretty heavy going in terms of the British election so here’s ten election related stories that we're sure will lift your spirits and prove there's only one thing more important than politics ... comedy.

David Cameron prepares for another term as British Prime Minister, the DUP retains its position as the largest party in the North and Ed Miliband, Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg step down in light of the British Election results. In other news a Dublin man admits to cheating on his wife on live radio and UCD look set to enter the Europa League. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s comments about unemployed people have drawn sharp criticism, IT group it@Cork is seeking Government funding for an initiative that could create 1,300 jobs, Man United have signed Memphis Depay and today’s Lusitania Centenary events live. These are some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

The Conservatives are no longer a party for the whole of the UK and have “basically mutated into an English party chasing Ukip votes in southern England”, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has claimed.

The five leaders of the five national political parties sum up in five sentences why voters should back them. Here is what they said (in alphabetical order):

The two men battling to be Britain’s next prime minister traded insults in the last hours of the too-close-to-call campaign by branding each other a conman and a squatter.

Prime minister David Cameron is Britain’s most popular major party leader and his Conservative Party the most trusted on the economy after helping revive it. However, win or lose a knife-edge election today, his career hangs by a thread.

The 385,000 voters born in Ireland will have some influence on the result of the British election, but its outcome could yet have a great deal of significance for the Republic. 

DON’T you just love a neck-and-neck election? That’s what the general election in the UK is shaping up to be. It offers all the potential excitement of our favourite spectator sport. It’s just a month away, and already it looks like it will be a really tough and bruising encounter.

People Before Profit have re-released a song ahead of the upcoming local elections which refers to liar politicians and bankers with money coming out their ears.

So this is it? The home straight. The final frontier. It all comes downto this.

IT WAS supposed to be a Labour Party gig but there wasn’t all that much about Labour’s core values or policies — instead it was all about Fianna Fáil.

WHERE the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea sits the mock gothic splendour of the Slieve Donard Hotel – the setting for Daniel Craig and Toni Collette’s adventure into repressed sexual longing in the film Hotel Splendide – and yesterday home to the rather less exciting British-Irish parliamentary forum.

THE Head Shop is dead. Long live the head-wrecking shop of the Dáil.

AS those who quietly but assiduously undermine the Freedom of Information Act understand and fear, information is real power. Why else have the workings of NAMA been placed outside the remit of the act?

ANY attempts to put Tiger Woods off at The Open in July will result in people being ejected.

CZECH president Vaclav Klaus has said he believes the Lisbon Treaty will come into force despite his attempts to block it, giving a glimmer of hope he may sign it in the coming weeks.

The Sun newspaper tonight endorsed the Conservatives to win the next British election.

WHENEVER the former Liberal Democrats leader Charles Kennedy was challenged on his drinking habits, he’d deflect by saying that just because he was Scottish and enjoyed the odd dram.

IF you look through the cronies of Tony’s who make up the British cabinet, you thank God for small mercies.

Pakistan’s interior minister today expressed concern over attacks against Muslims in Britain in the wake of last week’s bombings in London.

THE Tories moved immigration to the top of the British election battle yesterday, in a move branded “ugly” and “scurrilous” by Labour.

SINN FÉIN gave no tangible indication at the party’s Árd Fheis that it is ready to end republican links with criminality and paramiltarism, Government sources said yesterday.

FIANNA FÁIL last night denied making an informal approach to other parties to hold the Meath and Kildare North by-elections on May 5, the same day as the British general election.

NORTHERN Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde has been put on a par with the Pope. Like His Holiness speaking ex cathedra when he addresses matters of faith and morals, Mr Orde has been vested with the quality of infallibility since pronouncing that the IRA was responsible for beggaring the Northern Bank in Belfast.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said this September’s talks on the North will be the last chance to restore devolved government for the foreseeable future.

advance of today’s EU-US summit, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair held meetings in London yesterday in an effort to advance the peace process in Northern Ireland.

THOSE of you who are late night political anoraks may have come across a BBC 2 television programme called This Week.

The Government has reacted with surprise to David Trimble's shock threat to resign as First Minister if the IRA do not decommission by July 1st.