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Sunak Announces U.K. Elections for July 4, Months Earlier Than Expected
The opposition Labour Party has been ahead in most polls by double digits in recent months.
transcript
Sunak Calls for a Snap General Election in the U.K.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain announced July 4 as the date for general elections.
Earlier today, I spoke with His Majesty, the king, to request the dissolution of Parliament. The king has granted this request and we will have a general election on the 4th of July. This election will take place at a time when the world is more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War. These uncertain times call for a clear plan and bold action to chart a course to a secure future. You must choose in this election who has that plan. Who is prepared to take the bold action necessary to secure a better future for our country and our children?
Reporting from London
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain on Wednesday called a snap general election for July 4, throwing the fate of his embattled Conservative Party to a restless British public that appears eager for change after 14 years of Conservative government.
Mr. Sunak’s surprise announcement, from a rain-spattered lectern in front of 10 Downing Street, was the starting gun for six weeks of campaigning that will render a verdict on a party that has led Britain since Barack Obama was America’s president. But the Tories have discarded four prime ministers in eight years, lurching through the serial chaos of Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis.
With the opposition Labour Party ahead in most polls by double digits for the last 18 months, a Conservative defeat has come to assume an air of inevitability. For all that, Mr. Sunak is calculating that Britain has had just enough good news in recent days — including glimmers of fresh economic growth and the lowest inflation rate in three years — that his party might be able to cling to power.
“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” Mr. Sunak said as pelting rain drenched his suit jacket. The choice for voters, he said, was to “build on the future you’ve made or risk going back to square one.”
Political analysts, opposition leaders and members of Mr. Sunak’s own party agree that the electoral mountain he must climb is Himalayan. Burdened by a weak economy, a calamitous foray into trickle-down tax policies, and successive scandals, the Tories have seemed exhausted and adrift, split by internal feuds and fatalistic about their future. They face a threat on the right from the anti-immigrant Reform U.K. party.
“The Conservatives are facing a kind of extinction-level event,” said Matthew Goodwin, a professor of politics at the University of Kent who has advised Boris Johnson and other party leaders. “They look like they’re going to suffer an even bigger defeat than they did to Tony Blair in 1997.”
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