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Rishi Sunak has signalled that Britain’s general election will take place in the autumn, saying his “working assumption” was that the UK would go to the polls in the “second half of this year”.
Labour MPs have been playing up the idea of a May election — calling it the “worst-kept secret in Parliament” — in order to be able to accuse Sunak of taking fright if he delayed it to further in the year.
The Liberal Democrats have also been calling for Sunak to hold the vote in May rather than trying to “cling on” to power for the rest of the year.
However, Sunak told broadcasters on a visit to a youth centre in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire: “My working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year and in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
The Conservative leader declined to rule out a May election categorically.
The expectation in Westminster was that with the Conservatives trailing Labour by an average of 18 points in the polls, Sunak would wait to call one in the autumn to give more time for the economy to improve.
The law requires an election to be called at least once every five years, which means it must be held by January 2025.
Sunak also used the event to hint at future tax cuts and to criticise Labour’s plans to borrow billions for green infrastructure spending.