WORCESTER'S MP insists Theresa May is right to rule out a snap general election - saying it would be a "distraction" from Brexit.

Robin Walker says the Prime Minister has taken the "sensible" step by scorching ideas of an early poll despite his party's huge ratings lead.

At the Labour Party conference Jeremy Corbyn insisted he was "preparing for an early general election" following growing speculation one could be called.

Mrs May has taken the step of ruling it out twice, despite her own slim working majority of 12 being widely forecast to quadruple if she went ahead with one.

Earlier this month even some of the premier's own backbenchers urged her to u-turn and seek her own mandate, to take advantage of the Labour leader's poor ratings.

But Mr Walker, a junior Brexit minister, said triggering the process for leaving the EU by March will offer all political parties chance to set out policies for "an independent UK" in four years' time free of distractions.

The next general election is set for 2020 unless MPs vote to overturn a current piece of legislation called the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.

Mr Walker said: "Now that we've set out a Brexit timeline, there's a very important job to do in this Government.

"Ruling out an early general election is therefore the right thing to do, we've got to push this process through and focus on it even though some may say we should take advantage of Labour's weaknesses.

"It is a sensible approach to say 'we're going to see this parliament through'.

"Once we've completed the job in hand, what it will mean is that there'll be much greater clarity for all the parties to set out their policies for an independent UK."

If an early election was called, Labour would have to find new candidates quickly across all the seats.

That includes Worcester Labour Party, where its 2015 candidate Councillor Joy Squires has already ruled herself out of standing again, saying it is "time for a fresh face".

Last year Mr Walker held the Worcester seat with an increased majority of 5,646 to help secure an overall Tory majority in parliament for the first time since 1992.

Current polls show the Conservatives 17 per cent ahead of Labour on 43 per cent of the vote share, up two per cent since September.

Labour is down two per cent to 26 per cent, while UKIP is at 11 per cent, also down two per cent, according to Ipsos MORI.

At the Conservative conference MP Patrick McLoughlin, the party's chairman, insisted Mrs May will wait until 2020 before going to the polls.