LONDON (REUTERS) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday (April 19) that holding an early election on June 8 rather than waiting until 2020 would avert a situation where she would face a crunch time in European Union talks and a domestic election at the same time.

Under the planned timetable, Britain is expected to formally leave the EU in March 2019.

The early election in June means May will not have to face the voters again until 2022, giving her a wider margin of manoeuvre at the tail end of the Brexit talks.

"If you look at the timetable, had the election been in 2020 we would have been coming up to the most crucial part of the negotiations, at the end of the negotiations, in what would be starting to be the run-up to a general election," May said in an interview with the BBC.