Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly set to call a General Election this afternoon (May 22), with a vote believed to be pencilled in for July 4. Senior sources spoke to The Guardian, and believe the early July vote will be confirmed after news arrived that the economy is improving and inflation is back under control.
A vote is due to take place to elect a political party to power in just six weeks time, with campaigns set to commence imminently. Should this announcement take place, Parliament would dissolve later in May, with a General Election due to take place just over a month later on July 4.
The announcement follows a wave of speculation was built going into this afternoon’s Cabinet Meeting, with a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refusing to rule out the possibility of an announcement after the meeting.
When asked to deny rumours of an election being called later this evening, “I know there’s a lot of interest in this, as there has been pretty much every week over the last five months.
“I’ll just say the same thing I’ve always said, which is I’m not going to rule anything in or out. The PM said election – second half of the year.”
And now it looks like we have the date of July 4, meaning it’s a fairly unexpected summer election. All eyes will now be on Conservative Party leader (and incumbent Prime Minister) Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer as their campaigns for the election in just six weeks commence.
This General Election is the first since December 2019, when Conservatives gained a majority vote under Boris Johnson at the expense of Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn at the time. Labour will be hoping to win their first election since they lost their majority in 2010, when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government was formed, defeating Labour and then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Head to GOV.UK to find out more about voting in your constituency, and to register to vote ahead of the next UK General Election on July 4.