{"id":56227,"date":"2024-05-22T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T13:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/22\/why-the-summer-election-rumour-mill-is-running-hot\/"},"modified":"2024-05-22T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T13:20:15","slug":"why-the-summer-election-rumour-mill-is-running-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/22\/why-the-summer-election-rumour-mill-is-running-hot\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the summer election rumour mill is running hot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Why<\/div>\n
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Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, took his opportunity at PMQs to ask the question which seems to be on everyone’s lips in Westminster – is an election about to be called?<\/p>\n

Mr Flynn used the first of his two questions to Rishi Sunak to say: “Mr Speaker, speculation is rife, so I think the public deserve a clear answer to a simple question.<\/p>\n

Does the prime minister intend to call a summer general election or is he feart?”<\/p>\n

That’s slang for afraid, and a riff on Margaret Thatcher’s jibe – to Labour’s Denis Healey in the early 1980s – that he was “frit” – frightened – of a general election.<\/p>\n

Follow live: Cameron cuts short trip for cabinet meeting<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Sunak repeated there would be an election in the second half of this year – but did not take the opportunity to rule out a July election which would (just about) be in the second half.<\/p>\n

Downing Street has not dampened down speculation since last night that the announcement of an election is imminent, and senior Conservatives have not ruled it out.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean it will happen – Number 10 is not in the business of commenting on every bit of speculation.<\/p>\n

But the rumour mill is running hot that with inflation now down to 2.3%<\/a><\/strong>, Mr Sunak claiming the economy has “turned a corner”, and little movement in the opinion polls, he has little to lose but to go sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Plenty in his party have arguments to go sooner; or play it long.<\/p>\n

He does not have to hold one until the end of January 2025.<\/p>\n

Frenzies of election speculation have happened before, for example when a lectern appeared one rainy night in Downing Street on 2 March – which turned out to be for the prime minister to give a speech on extremism.<\/p>\n

It could be another bit of election preparation – a ministerial reshuffle to make sure he has the top team he wants around him when the time does come.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Standing ovation for MP who had limbs amputated<\/a><\/strong>
Have you got three days’ worth of tinned food and water? Govt tells Britons to prepare<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The cabinet is meeting at 4pm this afternoon, ostensibly because its regular Tuesday morning meeting was postponed due to the PM’s trip to Austria yesterday.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Lord Cameron has returned early from a trip to Albania to attend, while Defence Seceretary Grant Shapps has delayed a visit to Lithuania.<\/p>\n

After that, all eyes will be on whether the prime minister – who makes the decision on when to call an election alone – tells us more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, took his opportunity at PMQs to ask the question which seems to be on everyone’s lips in Westminster – is an election about to be called? Mr Flynn used the first of his two questions to Rishi Sunak to say: “Mr Speaker, speculation is rife, so I think the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/05\/1920x1080\/skynews-rishi-sunak-downing-street_6562552.jpg?20240522113533","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[50,5632,55307,43693,8271,8971],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56229,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions\/56229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}