UK General Election announced for July 4 as Rishi Sunak confirms public will go to the polls
Rishi Sunak has announced a general election will take place in the UK this summer on July 4.
Ahead of today's official confirmation the Prime Minister had said the general election would happen in the second half of this year. A six-week campaign will now begin ahead of polling day.
It comes after the Conservative government received some rare welcome news as official figures showed inflation slowed to 2.3% in April, the lowest level since July 2021.
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Announcing the news following a cabinet meeting this afternoon, Mr Sunak said: "This election will take place at time when the world is more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War."
Prior to the announcement, a spokesman for Labour leader Keir Starmer said: "We are fully ready to go whenever the Prime Minister calls an election. We have a fully organised and operational campaign ready to go and we think the country is crying out for a general election so would urge the Prime Minister to get on with it."
The Tories have recently suffered two defections by backbench MPs Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke to Labour and a poor performance at local elections in England last month.
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