Great Britain: Rishi Sunak announces new elections for July 4

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced early parliamentary elections. It will take place on July 4, Sunak announced in front of his official residence at 10 Downing Street in London. He has already met King Charles III. spoke about the dissolution of parliament, which will take place on May 30.

“Now is the time for Britain to determine its future,” Sunak said. The past five years have been “the most challenging since World War II,” the prime minister said, citing the coronavirus pandemic and high energy prices due to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Conservative Party is 20 percentage points behind Labour

“I came to power primarily to restore economic stability,” said Sunak, who has served as British prime minister since October 2022. This was achieved thanks to the “sacrifices and hard work” of the British people. The government had earlier announced that inflation had fallen to a usual level of 2.3 percent.

According to recent opinion polls, Sunak’s Conservative Party has little chance of winning the election in six weeks’ time. At around 20 to 25 percent, it is far behind the opposition Labor party, which recently reached 40 to 45 percent in surveys. In addition, the Conservative Tories recently lost hundreds of seats and a key mayoral position in local elections in England. The elections were seen as a mood test for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

There is speculation in the British media that Sunak is looking for brownie points in the face of the positive economic figures hopes. In his speech, Sunak said only a Conservative government led by him could stabilize the economy.

Sunak is the third prime minister since the last election

Unlike in Germany, the prime minister in Great Britain is largely free to decide on the date of the election within a generous electoral margin. The appointment must be announced at least 25 working days in advance. The elections should have taken place no later than January 2025.

The opposition has been pressing Sunak for months to set an election date. She accused him of delaying the timing as long as possible given the poor poll numbers. The new elections are ‘the moment the country has been waiting for’ said Labor leader and opposition leader Keir Starmer immediately after Sunak’s announcement. “It’s time for change.” A vote for Labor is a vote for stability.

The last Labor Prime Minister was Gordon Brown, who was replaced by Conservative David Cameron in 2010. Since then there have been five Conservative Prime Ministers in a row – with Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Sunak, three of which have been since the last election in 2019 alone.