Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a general election, which will take place on July 4. The Current Prime Minister made the announcement just after 5pm in a rainy live broadcast outside 10 Downing Street. It follows speculation throughout the day that a date would be confirmed after this afternoon’s (May 22) Cabinet meeting.
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. Parliament will dissolve later in May, with a general election due to take place just over a month later on July 4.
A wave of speculation was built up leading 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, the spokesperson said: “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, 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 Keir Starmer as their campaigns for the election in just six weeks commence.
This general election is the first since December 2019, when the Conservative Party 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.