It’s official: the long-awaited 2024 British general election will be held on Thursday, 4 July.
The irony is not lost on us that an American-based elections website will be covering a British election on Independence Day, but what else could be better?
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon following another contentious session at Prime Minister’s Questions. During that back-and-forth, the prime minister took a question from an MP about calling the election, but as it turns out, the announcement was closer than we thought.
What to Expect: 2024 British Election
The Conservatives perhaps dreaded Rishi Sunak calling this election, but nevertheless, they had to do it. Opinion polling has been bad, the local election results were dire, and the government has sustained heavy by-election losses over the past two years. Labour starts this campaign in strong position to form the next government and put Keir Starmer in Number 10.
Much more to break down later in terms of target seats and projections.
Is The Timing A Surprise?
Yes and no. As we discussed in a recent video on our YouTube channel, there was not much more time for the election to be called. By statute, Parliament had to be dissolved by December one way or another, which would have put the latest possible election date in January 2025. There had also been some rumblings that Sunak would wait until October or November. Simply put, everyone knew it would happen in the near future, just not precisely when.
If this was an attempt to catch the opposition off-guard, well, it caught us off-guard today, but Labour and all of the others have been ready for the election for a while. A summer election would not have been our guess.
Other Assorted Facts
The Conservatives have been in power in the United Kingdom since 2010. For the first five years of their current stint, they governed in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Rishi Sunak became prime minister and Tory leader in 2022, following the resignation of Liz Truss. Starmer became Labour and opposition leader in 2020.
In the prior general election, which was held in December 2019, then-leader Boris Johnson led the Conservatives to a solid victory. The Tories won 365 seats against Labour’s 202, making for a majority of 80.
