General elections called for 4th July amid palace controversy

General elections for the House of Commons will be held on Thursday, 4th July, as announced by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The decision has sparked controversy, leading Buckingham Palace to issue a statement cancelling a series of meetings.

"Now is the moment for the United Kingdom to choose its future. To decide whether we want to build on the progress made, or risk going back to square one with no plan and no certainty," said Sunak in a speech delivered outside his residence on Downing Street.

He informed that he had asked King Charles III for formal consent to dissolve the parliament, and the monarch granted it.

Buckingham Palace has already responded to the Prime Minister's announcement. "Following the Prime Minister's statement calling for a general election this afternoon, the Royal Family—in accordance with normal procedure—will postpone meetings that could in any way distract from the election campaign," a royal family spokesperson conveyed.

"Their Majesties send their sincere apologies," he added.

In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister can call elections at any time within five years of the previous ones, which means that the latest theoretically possible date was January next year. Sunak has long stated that elections would take place in the second half of this year but did not give a specific date.

The most frequent speculation revolved around October or November, but summer was not ruled out either. According to the British media, what drove the British Prime Minister to set the elections for the beginning of July was a series of good economic data released in recent days, such as the upward revision of economic growth forecasts and falling inflation.

On the other hand, holding elections at the beginning of July allows Sunak to avoid the risk of failing to fulfil his promise to start deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda in July, as well as avoid another set of record figures for the number of illegal crossings through the English Channel since their peak occurs from July to September.

These factors allow the Conservative Party to think about minimizing the scale of defeat, because realistically, this is the only thing Sunak can hope for.

44-year-old Sunak took over as leader of the Conservative Party and consequently the office of Prime Minister at the end of October 2022, replacing Liz Truss. He is the third Prime Minister since the previous elections, which took place in December 2019. The Conservative Party was led to those elections by Boris Johnson.