A snap general election will help the UK make a success of Brexit and provide long-term certainty, Theresa May says.

Defending her decision to seek a poll on 8 June, the prime minister told the BBC she had "reluctantly" changed her mind on the issue in recent weeks.

Asking the public to trust her, she said a new mandate would give her the "strongest hand" in talks and make it hard for people to "frustrate" EU exit.

The move is set to be authorised by MPs in the House of Commons later.

The early poll is expected to secure the two-thirds Commons majority it requires to go ahead following Mrs May's surprise announcement on Tuesday.

The next general election had been expected in 2020, but the Fixed Term Parliaments Act allows for one to be held earlier if two-thirds of MPs back the move.

The SNP has signalled its MPs will abstain in the vote on Wednesday afternoon and Labour and the Liberal Democrats, while accusing Mrs May of political opportunism, have welcomed the prospect of an early election.

Mrs May, who has repeatedly said since becoming PM in July that she would not hold an early election, told BBC Radio 4's Today that "no politician wanted to hold an election for the sake of it" and there were risks involved in doing so.

But she insisted that she trusted the British public "and I am asking them to put their trust in me".