Rishi Sunak calls general election for July 4 — as it happened

Holly Lynch, the Labour MP for Halifax and the party’s deputy chief whip, has become the 106th MP to announce they will not contest the election. Nineteen Labour MPs have made the announcement, compared with 66 Conservative MPs.

The number of Tory losses within the parliament has substantially reduced the party’s majority.

In a statement posted on social media, Lynch said that as a mother of a young son with another on the way she had “found balancing the requirements of this very special job, with those responsibilities, increasingly difficult”.

Rishi Sunak claimed that Labour would make Britain “a magnet for every illegal migrant in Europe” as he sought to make the Rwanda deportation scheme a key dividing line for the general election.

The prime minister visited Vienna this week to have the Austrian chancellor endorse the scheme. He said that “across Europe, the penny is dropping that ours is the right approach. But if Labour becomes the next government, they will scrap the Rwanda scheme and enact a de facto amnesty for asylum-seekers making us a magnet for every illegal migrant in Europe. In every way, Labour would make our country less secure.”

Labour has called the Rwanda scheme “not credible” and said it would consider the asylum claims of all those who have entered the UK illegally since the passage of the Illegal Migration Act, which effectively barred such claims.

• The Times view on Labour’s migrant proposals: Danger Ahead

Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, has confirmed that MPs will be asked to sit on Friday.

That gives parliament just two days for “wash-up”, where the 28 bills currently making their way through parliament must either be passed or abandoned.

In the 2005 and 2010 elections, the wash-up lasted two days. In 2005, 12 bills were dropped and 14 were passed. Five years later, no bills were dropped and 17 passed.

In 2017 the period was 13 days, during which 13 bills received royal assent.

Rishi Sunak will challenge Sir Keir Starmer to as many TV debates as possible over the course of the election campaign.

No decision has been made on the number and format of debates, but both parties have privately agreed in principle to participate. The Tories are keener than Labour for several debates — largely because they are behind in the polls, so have more to gain, and they believe that Sunak will outperform Starmer.

Labour wants to limit the number of debates to one or two, and will probably insist they are head to head events rather than including other party leaders.

Rishi Sunak told the Conservatives’ election rally that he wanted to build a “country where hard work will be met with fair rewards and where the opportunities enjoyed by the previous generations will be there for future ones”.

He said: “So let’s take that message of that vision of a secure future to every corner of our United Kingdom.”

Rishi Sunak has told supporters he knows the last few years have been “tough” but he said the Conservatives had “delivered” to drive down inflation.

Surrounded by his cabinet, the prime minister told activists at the ExCel convention centre in east London: “We’ve shown the country that it is only this Conservative party that can deliver the economic stability the foundation of our national success.”

He added: “Who do you trust to turn that foundation into a secure future for you, your family and our country? Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future, to decide whether we want to build on the progress that we have made or risk going back to square one with no plan and no certainty.”

Sunak said he was sure the British people would “show Labour that they don’t take too kindly to being taken for granted”. He said that “the only certainty with Labour is that they will run out of money and raise your taxes” and that Sir Keir Starmer’s party would leave the country “less secure”.

“On the 5th of July either Keir Starmer or I will be prime minister and he has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out,” he continued.

“If he doesn’t have the conviction, to stick to anything, he says, if he doesn’t have the courage to tell people what he wants to do, and if he doesn’t have a plan, how can he possibly be trusted to lead our country especially at this the most uncertain of times?”

• Inside No 10: Battle of the black holes: who has the tools to fix the economy?

James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the British people have a “clear” and “simple” choice at the general election.

Introducing Rishi Sunak at the party’s campaign rally in London, Cleverly said: “It’s a choice about integrity and it’s a choice about what happens next for our country.”

But he said the election was also about choices Sunak had made. He said the prime minister had made “difficult choices” which had driven down inflation, and that he had made the choice to support Ukraine.

Sunak — having removed his rain-soaked jacket from earlier — also released a video on Twitter/X explaining his decision to call the election.

Cleverly added that the “other choice available” was a Labour party led by “one of the various Keir Starmer entities”.

He said he “genuinely doesn’t know” who Starmer is, and referenced his past support for Jeremy Corbyn.

He said: “The choice is clear. A weak, indecisive, completely contradictory Keir Starmer, or the head of a Labour party beholden to the extreme left or a man of courage, a man of integrity, a man who has been decisive and effective, who works tirelessly on behalf of the British people and has shown that the tough decisions that he has been willing to take are making a difference, that is what this is about.”

Those who will be away from their constituency on July 4 can register for a postal vote. The deadline to register, set out by the Electoral Commission, is to be 5pm on Wednesday, June 19, eleven working days before the election.

The deadline for registering someone else to vote by proxy is a week later, on June 26.

Any British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen over the age of 18 on the day of the election is eligible to vote.

For the first time this year, British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years can vote, which will enfranchise three million Britons overseas.

The swing required to the opposition — the share of the vote that has to switch from the Conservatives so Labour can form a government — is 12.5 per cent, more than anything seen in modern British politics.

Margaret Thatcher’s win in 1979 followed a 5.4 per cent swing to the Conservatives, while Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997 saw a 10.2 per cent swing.

The calculation of swing assumes, however, that the change is “uniform”, meaning the geographical balance of the vote does not change.

But Labour is confident that the big change since 2019 is not the number of voters who will back the party, but how “efficiently” they are spread over the constituencies needed to win.

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, has said the party is “ready” for a July general election. It has already confirmed more than 500 parliamentary candidates across the country.

Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and honorary president of Reform UK, has said he will think overnight about whether to stand for parliament.

He told GB News: “The whole plan for Reform was that it was a six-year plan. Fight this election, get ready for when Labour fail.

“As for what I do, I’ll think about it overnight … No commitment either way from me at the moment.”

Things can only get wetter. The prime minister channels Andie MacDowell in a sodden start to his campaign, but will it wash with voters? asks Patrick Kidd in the political sketch.

Matthew Parris, Rachel Sylvester, Trevor Phillips and Alice Thomson give their verdicts on Rishi Sunak’s risky election call. They’re not optimistic about the prime minister’s chances.

Professor Sir John Curtice, the polling expert, says it is not clear what Sunak thinks he can achieve in a few weeks having achieved so little in 18 months.

The shadow justice secretary has said the prime minister “found his courage today” in calling the election after he “bottled it” in May.

Shabana Mahmood told Times Radio: “We were expecting, actually, that the prime minister might have the courage to call the general election back in May alongside the local elections and the mayoral elections that took place then. He bottled it then, he’s found his courage today.”

Before the announcement this afternoon, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, had said that “now is not the time” for a Tory “victory lap”. “Prices in the shops have soared, mortgage bills have risen and taxes are at a seventy year high,” she said.

No 10 has released a list of election-related dates following Rishi Sunak’s announcement:

• May 24: Parliament prorogued
• May 30: Parliament dissolved
• June 7: Deadline for nomination of candidates
• June 18: Deadline to register to vote
• July 4: UK general election
• July 9: New parliament summoned, MPs sworn in
• July 17: State opening of parliament and King’s speech

Jeremy Hunt confirmed he will be standing at the general election after speculation he would give up his seat (Geraldine Scott writes).

The chancellor’s constituency, which will become Godalming and Ash at the election after boundary changes, is likely to be a high-priority target for the Lib Dems and Hunt has donated £100,000 of his own money to his local party to help defend it.

Hunt said: “It will be my honour to fight with every bone in my body to get him re-elected because we need a government that takes the difficult decisions necessary to unlock our nation’s extraordinary potential.”

On his constituency, he added: “It is a highly marginal seat so I will fight hard for every single vote.”

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister and the leader of the Scottish National Party, said calling an election for the first week of the summer holidays shows “the contempt the Tories have for Scotland”.

He said: “This is perhaps the latest act of disrespect from a Conservative government to call an election during the Scottish summer school holidays. There will be schools in Scotland on holiday by the time polling day comes and that will not have been given a moment’s thought by the Tory election planners.”

• SNP’s finances in dire straits as Labour takes the lead

Two cabinet ministers expressed reservations about calling an early election when Rishi Sunak announced his plan to them today (Steven Swinford writes).

Esther McVey, a minister in the Cabinet Office, said Sunak would be better off waiting for an improved economic outlook to filter through to the public. Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, said he would not have made the same decision but was fully supportive.

Explaining his decision, Sunak told colleagues that it was important for the Conservatives to be bold and to “own” the narrative.

Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has launched his party’s general election campaign in Michael Gove’s Surrey constituency, where he said his candidates would be “local champions” (Geraldine Scott writes).

He said: “Across the country, people are crying out for change and this election is the chance to make that happen. In so many parts of the country it’s the Liberal Democrats who can beat the Conservatives, who have taken people for granted for so long.”

The Lib Dems are likely to run highly localised campaigns in a handful of Blue Wall seats where they believe they can unseat the Conservative incumbents. Davey said: “Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a local champion — an MP who will fight for you, your family and your community to get the fair deal that you so deserve.”

• Ed Davey interview: ‘Being a carer is harder than being a politician’

Rishi Sunak is not renowned for taking risks (Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright write). His approach as prime minister has been about calming nerves and instilling stability after Liz Truss’s disastrous 49-day tenure as prime minister.

All of this makes his decision to call a general election in just over six weeks seem inexplicable. So why has he decided to go now?

The royal family is to postpone engagements “which may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign”, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The Palace said: “Following the prime minister’s statement this afternoon calling a general election, the royal family will, in accordance with normal procedure, postpone engagements that may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign. Their majesties send their sincere apologies to any of those who may be affected as a result.”

Sir Keir Starmer urged people to vote Labour to “stop the chaos” and told the country “it’s time for a change”.

He promised a politics that “treads more lightly on people’s lives” as he sought to tap into public exhaustion with years of Westminster drama.

“After 14 years under the Tories, nothing seems to work any more,” Starmer said. He described “sewage in our rivers, people waiting on trolleys in A&E, crime virtually unpunished, mortgages and food prices through the roof”.

He insisted: “A vote for Labour is a vote to turn the page on all that, a vote for change.”

Pointing out that he “came into politics late in life” after running the Crown Prosecution Service, Starmer said he could overcome public cynicism. “Together we can stop the chaos,” he said. “We can turn the page, we can start to rebuild Britain and change our country.”

• What are Labour’s six pledges? Inside Keir Starmer’s election plan

• Keir Starmer interview: my plans to reform our broken NHS

The last time a UK general election was held in July was in 1945 — when Labour defeated Winston Churchill’s Conservatives in a landslide victory.

The vote took place on July 5, and the result was announced three weeks later. Labour won 393 seats while the Tories secured just 197, one of the biggest electoral swings of the twentieth century.

Churchill was confident his party would win due to his wartime success, but Labour appealed to many voters with its promises of social reform.

Between now and the general election, The Times will be combining voting intention data from more than a dozen pollsters to produce a clear picture on how each party is being received by the public.

Read more from Tom Calver, data editor, in our poll tracker.

After trying on various different narratives for his government, in the end Rishi Sunak made the classic election pitch for a Tory government: you may not love us, but don’t risk the other lot (Chris Smyth writes).

Under lowering skies, Sunak painted a gloomy picture of a world “more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War”, with Britain threatened at home and abroad.

The aim was to present himself as the man who will keep the nation safe: “I will forever do everything in my power to provide you with the strongest possible protection I can.”

This too was Sunak’s economic pitch, as he sought to make a virtue of the fact that “it might still be hard when you look at your bank balance”. He said: “Only a Conservative government led by me will not put our hard-earned economic stability at risk.”

Sunak began by reminding voters of the furlough scheme, for which he first came to public prominence and became the most popular politician in the country as chancellor during the pandemic. The aim was to show that “when we work together, anything is possible”. The risk is it only showed just how far Sunak’s standing has fallen.

Rishi Sunak has called a general election for July 4, kicking off a campaign in which both major parties — and a range of minor parties and independents — will vie for your vote.

The prime minister will go head-to-head with Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, who is coming up against a Conservative government that has been in power for 14 years.

Sunak said: “Earlier today I spoke with His Majesty the King to request the dissolution of parliament. The King has granted this request and we will have a general election July 4.

“This election will take place at a time when the world is more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War.”

In announcing the date for the general election outside No 10, Sunak said: “We’ve tackled inflation, controlled debt, cut workers’ taxes, and increased the state pension by £900. We’ve reduced taxes on investment and seized the opportunities of Brexit to make this the best country in the world to grow a business, put record amounts of funding into our NHS and ensured it is now training the doctors and nurses it needs in the decades to come.”

The prime minister began his address by referencing his achievements as chancellor during the Covid pandemic.

He was almost drowned out, however, a protester playing “Things can only get better” in Whitehall.

Rishi Sunak said the country was facing a “generational defining moment” in 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. In the last five years, the country has “fought through the most challenging time” since the Second World War.

Sunak said that upon taking office as prime minister his main aim was to “restore economic stability” and after “collective sacrifice” that stability had been delivered.

A summer general election will prompt a “fair few” Conservative MPs to announce that they are standing down, a Tory peer has said.

Lord Barwell, who served as chief of staff in No 10 during Theresa May’s premiership, said an exodus of Tory MPs in the coming days would not be an “ideal start” for the Conservative campaign.

• Why MPs are quitting parliament — the ‘chicken run’ in charts

He wrote on Twitter/X: “If Rishi Sunak does indeed call an election today, I suspect the first few days of the campaign are going to see a fair few Conservative MPs announce they are standing down. Not an ideal start, but an inevitable consequence of going early.”

An election on July 4 could cause controversy in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as it falls at the start of the school summer holidays (Max Kendix writes).

The date would be the first or second Thursday of the summer holidays for most parents in those nations, whereas in England and Wales they start in late July.

Before a general election there must be a period of “wash up”, where legislation making its way through parliament is either passed or abandoned (Max Kendix writes).

There are 28 bills that would have to be resolved, including 16 government bills. Hugely consequential laws may be approved within days under this process, as bills with cross-party consensus get sign-off. If faced with too much opposition, they may be dropped or heavily amended.

Bills in the system include: the Sentencing Bill, which would scrap short prison sentences; the Criminal Justice Bill, which includes several measures on police powers; the Renters Reform Bill, which aims to strengthen the rights of tenants; a bill to approve the leg of HS2 between Crewe and Manchester; the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would make smoking illegal for those born before 2009; and the Football Governance Bill, which would introduce a state regulator for the sport.

An election on July 4 means parliament would be dissolved on May 30 — and cancelling recess, which would have started tomorrow.

Ministers avoided questions from the press as they arrived at No 10 for the cabinet meeting.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, was the first cabinet minister to arrive at No 10. He was followed soon after by Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Claire Coutinho, the energy security secretary, and Victoria Atkins, the health secretary.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, who is stepping down as an MP at the next general election, has also arrived.

He was followed by Andrew Mitchell, deputy foreign secretary, and Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister.

The cabinet meeting was scheduled to begin at 4.15pm.

Rishi Sunak has called a election in July against the advice of Tory strategists, who have long favoured an autumn election (Oliver Wright writes).

Issac Levido, who will run the Tory campaign, has always argued that the Conservatives’ best hope of finding a “narrow path” to victory lies in allowing enough time for the economy to improve and for voters to feel that in their personal finances.

By calling an election now — before interest rates have even begun to be cut — Sunak could risk losing that potential advantage.

One senior Tory said it was “madness” to call an election before the autumn, saying that there was “next to no chance” Sunak would be able to overturn Labour’s 20-plus percentage point lead in a six week campaign.

Party leaders received a letter on Wednesday morning urging them to ensure that candidates fight a clean election campaign.

Doug Chalmers, chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said that it was particularly important “that disagreement should be expressed in a civil manner and that inflammatory language and actions should not be tolerated”. The independent committee advises the prime minister on ethical matters.

He wrote: “In the forthcoming election, as the leader of your party, you will have a major influence on the quality and civility of public debate — both in person and online — through the conduct of your candidates, campaign teams and election agents. We urge you to ensure that they recognise their responsibility to promote civility and the core values of our political system.”

He also urged leaders to get their candidates to abide by a code of conduct agreed with the Jo Cox Foundation.

Chalmers wrote to the leaders of all the major political parties, including the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and the Green party.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has abruptly pulled out of a scheduled appearance on ITV’s Peston tonight.

The programme confirmed on Twitter/X that Hunt would “no longer” be appearing.

Rumours of a cabinet reshuffle also spread on Wednesday, with questions over Hunt’s political fate. Downing Street did little to quell them.

The prime minister’s press secretary refused to “comment on reshuffle speculation” and ducked questions about the chancellor’s future.

Polls consistently show a commanding lead for Labour, with the party retaining a double-digit lead over the Conservatives.

Sir Keir Starmer repeated his now familiar line at prime minister’s questions when the debate inevitably turned to the general election. The Labour leader urged Sunak to “get on with it” and announce the date for the election.

As speculation shifted from PMQs to parliamentary corridors, Labour said the party was “ready to go”. A spokesman said: “We are fully ready to go whenever the prime minister calls an election. We have a fully organised and operational campaign ready to go and we think the country is crying out for a general election so would urge the prime minister to get on with it.”

The spokesman, however, said Sunak had “bottled it” in the past when under pressure to call an election

Two senior ministers were told to change their travel arrangements to attend a cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary, is flying back from Albania earlier than planned while Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, is delaying a trip to eastern Europe for a Nato meeting. Cameron was in Tirana to discuss immigration policy, but cut short his visit so he can attend the meeting in Downing Street at 4.15pm.

The decision to call Cameron and Shapps back to Downing Street at such short notice has further fuelled speculation that a general election will be called.

General election speculation dominated prime minister’s questions on Wednesday as Rishi Sunak insisted the poll would take place in the second half of the year.

Asked by Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, about rumours of an election at PMQs, Sunak teasingly responded: “Spoiler alert — there is going to be a general election in the second half of the year.”

He added: “At that moment, the British people will in fact see the truth about the honourable gentleman opposite me [Sir Keir Starmer] because that will be the choice at the next election.”

While the prime minister would not be drawn on the prospect of a summer election, he did little to dampen growing speculation that a date would be announced imminently.

Sunak himself laughed — apparently knowingly — when asked if he was about to call an election.

Barring a fairly brief and largely botched recent experiment with fixed-term parliaments, election dates remain in the gift of a prime minister.

Rishi Sunak has said he wants to hold a general election only when people “feel that things are improving”.

On Wednesday he seized on the improving economic picture after inflation fell from 3.2 per cent in March to 2.3 per cent in April.

The economy, he argued at prime minister’s questions, had finally turned a corner. “That’s why we need to stick to the plan that is working,” he told the Commons.

Sunak claimed it was the “difficult decisions” taken by the Conservatives in power that had allowed inflation to drop from a high of 11 per cent when he became prime minister.

He has made clear that the economy will take centre stage in the election campaign.