Politically, and even morally, many argue that the case for a general election now is unanswerable. The sheer chaos and constant changes in policy and personnel mean that the mandate won by Boris Johnson in December 2019 is meaningless. However, for what it’s still worth, Liz Truss has rejected the idea of an immediate general election, and so the question arises as to when such an election might take place.
Now that the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act has been abolished and replaced with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act (2022), prime ministers have almost complete autonomy in the matter, within the traditional constitutional conventions restored by the new act. It is a powerful prerogative in the hands of any premier; the potential for partisan manipulation of the economic cycle to fit the political cycle is obvious.
As it currently stands, the last possible date for the next election is a little over five years after the last one – 23 January 2025.
