Conventional wisdom dictates that Theresa May made a terrible mistake in calling the 2017 general election. Of course, the result itself – turning a small Conservative majority into a minority – was a political disaster and a personal humiliation for the prime minister. But May had good reason to go to the polls when she did.
First, she was correct in identifying the need for as large a majority as possible in order to get her Brexit legislation through parliament. Second, she was hamstrung by a seemingly unrelated issue: taxation.
