General Election 2017 odds: Bookies make Conservatives overwhelming favourites

The Conservative Party are the hot favourites with the bookies at the planned general election in June.

Prime minister Theresa May surprised everyone at Westminster this morning with the announcement of her plans for a snap general election.

She also caught the bookmakers on the hop, but it wasn’t too long before they were offering odds on the outcome of the June 8 poll.

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Bookmakers William Hill slashed its odds on the Conservatives winning the next general election (which, up until 11am today, was looking like being gin 2020) with an overall majority from 8/13 to 2/9.

That means there is an 87% of a Tory majority after the election, according to William Hill.

Punters can bet on an overall Labour majority at 14/1, which is the longest odds they have been offered at this century.

The Liberal Democrats are at 25/1.

There is a 20% chance of a hung parliament – the odds of it happening are 4/1 with the bookmaker.

William Hill has bad news for Jeremy Corbyn, offering odds of 1/2 – or a 66% chance – that he will no longer be Labour leader on or before June 9.

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: ‘The next general election campaign has started badly for us – we face a £23,000 loss if the election does go ahead on June 8 after the odds for a 2017 Election were shortened from 5/1 to 2/1.

‘We took some £3 million on the last general election, and £5 million on the US election, so we anticipate huge betting interest on a June 8 general election.’

Bookmaker Ladbrokes has the Conservatives at 1/5 to win an overall majority, with Labour at 12/1 and the Liberal Democrats at 66/1.