The prime minister has called a snap general election to be held on 4 July.
Speaking outside Number 10 at 5pm on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak surprised everyone by calling an early election – he was not required to have one until January next year.
It followed an afternoon of wild speculation as ministers cancelled meetings, the foreign secretary cut his trip to Albania short, and Downing Street insiders refused to douse rumours that a general election was imminent.
Speaking at a lectern but caught in the rain, Sunak luck slipped further when his speech was drowned out by the campaign anthem for Labour’s landslide 1997 election Things Can Only Get Better – a bad omen for the Conservative Party which is widely expected to lose the election – and lose badly.
The song stopped toward the end of his speech, but the damage was already done: Twitter exploded with the tagline Things Can Only Get Wetter.
Announcing the decision to call the election, the prime minister 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.”
He made an early pitch for votes when he went on: “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… now is the moment for Britain to choose its future”.
The decision is a large political gamble: the expectation was that the election would be held at the end of the year to give the Conservative Party more time to win voters around. The announcement has also been met with joy by both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, both of whom have been pushing for a election for months.
