Rishi Sunak rules OUT General Election on May 2 as Prime Minister insists he’s ‘squarely focused’
RISHI Sunak last night ruled out holding a general election on May 2.
The Prime Minister made the announcement during a visit to Gloucester Rugby in the southwest.
Speaking to ITV West, Mr Sunak said: “In seven weeks’ time we have local elections, including in Gloucester where I was talking to them today.
“We have police and crime commissioner elections, we have mayoral elections.
“I’m squarely focused on those because they’re important and there’s not going to be a general election on that day.
“But when there is a general election actually what matters is the choice at that election.”
A general election needs to take place in the UK by the end of January 2025.
Voters are set to go to the polls for the local elections on May 2.
The PM made the intervention amid speculation in Westminster he could call an election within days to coincide with the local elections, seeking to reap an advantage at the ballot box from the national insurance cut announced at the Budget.
Mr Sunak said in January that the “working assumption” was that an election would be helpful in the second half of the year.
Labour has been particularly keen to talk up the prospect of a general election in May.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth bet Sky News presenter Kay Burley £10 that the election would take place then.
When asked earlier on Thursday about the date of the election, he told reporters: “I said at the start of this year, my working assumption was we’d have an election in the second half of this year.
“And nothing has changed since I said that.”