Gareth David
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a general election. On the 4th of July this year the polls will open, and the country will decide on whom it wishes to govern them going forward.
Sunak […] talked about his time in government, the furlough scheme, a sense of togetherness during the pandemic
Prime Minister Sunak delivered his speech outside Number 10 Downing Street, where he talked about his time in government, the furlough scheme, a sense of togetherness during the pandemic, the difficulty of costs, and how people may only now be seeing the benefits of Conservative policy.
He has promised to “fight for every vote” going into the General Election. With the election date being so close, it means that Parliament will be suspended on Friday, and then formally shut down on Thursday 30th May, to allow for a five-week election campaign from all parties seeking to run.
This gives any outstanding legislation a brief one-one and a half days to pass, which means many promised government measures will be abandoned.
A loudspeaker played […] the theme of the landslide ‘New Labour’ campaign
The PM gave his speech in the rain outside Number 10, whilst various heckles were thrown, and a loudspeaker played the D.Ream hit Things Can Only Get Better, noted as being the theme of the landslide ‘New Labour’ campaign led by Tony Blair in 1997.
The optics of the delivery seems to have sparked confusion and anger amongst some Tory members. “If the whole point was to remind the public that he was Mr Fuarlough, why not do the speech inside from the same briefing room?”, spoke one senior Tory Minister who then followed with: “Labour MPs are happy. We’re not. That tells a story.”
There seems to have been an expectation that a later election was the plan.
Shortly after, Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour party, stated that Tory “chaos” has damaged the country, and a vote for Labour offered a real change and stability.
“Time for change” [Sir Keir Starmer]
Sir Keir said it was “time for change”, that the Labour party had itself changed, and that they will focus on returning Britain “to the service of working people”. “If the Conservatives get another five years, they will be entitled to carry on exactly as they are”, said Starmer”
The last snap election called by Boris Johnson did lead to an eighty-seat majority for the Conservatives, yet saw a huge upheaval in British politics that led to Johnson being forced to resign, and the fourty-nine-day reign of Liz Truss, who also resigned after a disastrous mini budget.
This is the first General Election in which the public will have to bring ID to the polling station.
Gareth David
Featured image courtesy of Jordhan Madec via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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