Rishi Sunak has broken his silence on the possibility of a 2024 election. The Prime Minister reportedly told journalists at the Downing Street Christmas reception that there will be an election next year.
This puts to bed popular rumours that Sunak would call an election at the start of 2025.
GB News’ deputy political editor Tom Harwood posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the announcement.
He said: “The Prime Minister confirms to journalists at No10 Xmas reception tonight that 2024 WILL be an election year – putting to bed persistent rumours of a January 2025 election.”
A 2024 election was predicted after Government announced they would slash national insurance by two percentage points in January. Some Conservative MPs believed it was so the party would be in a strong position to go into an election.
Recent YouGov polling from December 12 to 13 showed that just 22 percent of people would vote Conservative, 44 percent would vote for Labour and 10 percent would vote Liberal Democrats.
General elections must take place no more than five years apart, so the next one must take place by January 28 2025 at the latest.
That is five years from the day the current parliament first met, December 17 2019.