UK General Election Called For 4 July

23rd May 2024

Rishi Sunak has called a UK general election for 4 July - a Thursday as is traditional.

This is just inside the second half of the year, as he promised. The timing is not ideal for voters in some parts of the country, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, where school holidays will have already started and many people may be on holiday.

Parliament will dissolve on 30 May when all MP's will lose their positions and need to seek re-election if the intent to stand again.

The UK is divided into 650 areas, called constituencies. Each of these elects an MP to represent local residents in the House of Commons.

On election day, registered voters in each constituency vote for their preferred candidate in their local polling station. Some people vote by post in advance.

Most candidates represent a political party, but some stand as independents.

In a general election, each person has one vote. Under the "first past the post" system, the candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for that area.

The gun has been fired and the campaign is on.