Sunak launches campaign as election date set for July

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a summer UK general election to take place on Thursday 4 July.

He had been widely expected to wait until the autumn before triggering the poll, which does not legally have to be held until January 2025.

But in a surprise move, he announced the first July election since 1945.

It will see the Conservatives try to win a fifth consecutive term in office, taking on Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party, which is ahead in opinion polls.

Parliament will be suspended on Friday, before being formally shut down on Thursday next week, in advance of the official five-week election campaign.

In a statement in Downing Street, the prime minister pointed to falling inflation to claim his administration was delivering "hard-earned economic stability".

It came after it was announced inflation in the year to April fell to 2.3%, the lowest annual figure in almost three years.

Sir Keir said the poll would give voters the chance to "turn the page" on Tory "chaos".

Adding it was "time for change," he said: "Give the Tories five more years and things will only get worse. Britain deserves better than that."

At the last election in 2019, Boris Johnson won an 80-seat majority after calling a snap poll as he fought to get his Brexit withdrawal deal through Parliament.

It was followed by an extraordinarily volatile period in British politics, as the country was hit by the Covid pandemic and Mr Johnson was forced to resign, amid a cabinet revolt over a series of scandals.

His successor Liz Truss lasted 49 days in the job before she quit, after a market backlash to her tax and spending plans announced at a hastily-arranged "mini Budget" in September 2022.