We’re at the start of a six-week whirlwind of politics – here’s what to expect

It’s nice not living in the US for a number of reasons, but one of them is the way they do elections.

If you’re au fait with American politics, you’ll know they’ve got candidate selections, primaries, debates, national conventions, and all that faff for well over a year before election day.

As we found out this week, elections in the UK are done an awful lot quicker. They’re announced, there’s six weeks of mayhem, then they’re over.

So, we find ourselves at the start of those six weeks. It’s been a while since we last went through this kind of political pandemonium, so I thought it might be nice to write a refresher on what to expect.

It’s impossible to predict what gaffes might be uttered, what characters might emerge, and what bizarre stunts the Lib Dems might produce (their team assured me there’s plenty in the pipeline).

However, there are certain things that you can rely on to cause a bit of drama. Here are four of them.

MPs bidding farewell

Before the election was even called on Wednesday, more than 100 MPs from several different parties had said they would not be standing at the next election.

They included some true political heavyweights, including ex-Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour mainstay Harriet Harman, former health secretary Matt Hancock and Caroline Lucas, the first and only ever Green Party MP.

But since the PM’s announcement, even more MPs have said they’ve taken the decision to stand down.

Most of them have been Tories, giving government critics an opportunity to bring up metaphors about fleeing sinking ships.

Craig Mackinlay, who was hailed as an inspiration upon his return to parliament on Wednesday after he lost all his limbs to sepsis, said today he would not be standing as he was concerned he could not withstand the strain of campaigning.

John Redwood, another Conservative MP who has represented Wokingham since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, also announced he would not seek re-election.

New candidates selected

Up until Wednesday, most people were assuming Rishi Sunak would be waiting until autumn to call the next General Election.

This meant local parties were caught a bit off guard when he stepped into the rain to announce one on July 4.

Hundreds of candidates had not yet been picked for races up and down the country, and now there’s a bit of a panic to vet and choose appropriate people for each seat.

Speaking to Sky News about whether Diane Abbott would be standing for Labour in six weeks’ time, party leader Keir Starmer said: ‘The final decisions on candidates is coming up in a few days’ time, I think June 4, it may be a little earlier, a little later, I can’t quite remember.’

If that’s true for all parties, they’ve got around a week and a half to pick who they want standing for them.

Manifestos launched

The one thing all the parties want you to care about – their manifesto pledges and promises.

Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what they are yet. All we can say is that at some point in the next couple of weeks, each of the party leaders will wave their booklet above their head.

None of the party sources I asked were willing to give me a steer on when their manifestos would be launched yet.

So to all those people who refuse to make up their mind until they read every party’s manifesto front to back – number one, well done, and number two, I’m sorry I don’t have any more details for you.

Debates on TV

For those of you who don’t have the time or the inclination to download and read the manifestos, the debates are a decent alternative.

You might have heard a fair bit about them today – Rishi Sunak challenged Keir Starmer to weekly head-to-head televised debates.

Starmer, perhaps realising that political journalists will be busy enough over the next month and a half, said two would be quite sufficient ahead of the big day on July 4.

Plans have not yet been announced, but in 2019 there were several debates including two head-to-heads between Tory leader Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on ITV and BBC.

The BBC also held a podium debate featuring ‘major figures’ from seven parties – one of the earliest high-profile public appearances from Rishi Sunak – and Channel 4 held a ‘climate debate’ in which Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, who declined to take part, were replaced by melting ice sculptures.

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