Sunak calls summer general election for 4 July

Drowned in the pouring rain and drowned out by a speaker playing the New Labour anthem “Things Can Only Get Better”, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a general election for 4 July after a day of intense speculation in Westminster.  

The election will be in 6 weeks and parliament will be dissolved on 30 May. It also means that summer recess initially planned for 23 July 2024 will be cancelled.

In his speech, the PM focused on defence and security saying that the last five years had been the most difficult since the Second World War. Referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the threat of China, Sunak said: “This election will take place at a time when the world is more dangerous than at any time since the Cold War.”

Sunak also spoke of his pride at the furlough scheme he rolled out as Chancellor during Covid, attempting to hammer home the message that he is trustworthy and deserves the electorate’s vote. But the rain and the blasting music certainly undermined the content of the speech.  

Rumours began after it was revealed that foreign secretary Lord Cameron had cut short his trip to Albania to attend a Cabinet meeting at 4:15pm while defence secretary Grant Shapps had postponed an overseas trip.

When asked at Prime Minister’s Questions whether he would call an election, Sunak was guarded, only going as far as to say that there would be an election in the second half of the year. Technically, he wasn’t lying.

The government failed to quell the rumours flying around on social media and in Whitehall. At 1:19pm today, ITV’s Political Editor Robert Peston posted on X: “For what it is worth, I think an earlier election is on. I can’t tell you why I now think that.  This is not 100% certain but close enough for me to mention to you”. 

This was followed up at 3:25pm with: “I am now even more confident that an early election is coming than I was just before lunch.  If I subsequently look an eejit, so be it”.

On the back of the positive news that inflation had dropped to 2.3 per cent last month from 3.2 per cent in March, Sunak said his economic plan was working and that if the country sticks to it, “there will be brighter days ahead”.

But Sunak’s popularity remains extremely low in opinion polls as does the Tory party more generally. Scandals and defections have become the white noise surrounding a party in disarray and it seems unlikely that Sunak truly feels he can swing the opinion polls in a mere six weeks. There are now rumours of Tory MPs filing letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister to avoid an election.

As for Labour’s preparedness, Keir Starmer told a press conference that his party has a long-term plan to rebuild Britain. He said it was fully costed, fully funded and ready to go. He listed a series of what he called Tory failures: sewage in our rivers, people waiting on trolleys in A&E, crime going unpunished and mortgages through the roof. Starmer said that, ultimately, a vote for Labour is a vote for change – unlike the Tory mentality of “party first, country second”.

Now the battle begins.  

Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life