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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces the prospect of a fresh by-election challenge as he hinted on his first anniversary in office that he would not call a general election before next autumn.
The House of Commons on Wednesday voted to approve a recommended six-week suspension of Tory MP Peter Bone, after he was found by a parliamentary watchdog to have bullied an employee and committed indecent exposure. He has denied the allegations.
The MPs’ move triggers a recall petition that could pave the way for a by-election in Bone’s Northamptonshire constituency of Wellingborough, where he has an 18,540 majority.
If held, it would be the seventh by-election since the beginning of July. In the six ballots that have occurred since the summer Labour has made gains in four, the Lib Dems in one, and the Conservatives have held one.
At prime minister’s questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded Sunak call an immediate election after Britain’s main opposition party last week overturned two large Tory majorities in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth.
But Sunak hinted he would not call a general election until the autumn of 2024, releasing a video urging voters to examine what he achieves in the next “52 weeks”.
On the first anniversary of his arrival in Number 10, Sunak claimed he had “achieved a lot”, citing the publication of the long-term NHS workforce plan, securing the Windsor framework agreement with the EU, unveiling a “new approach” to net zero and signing a Trans-Pacific trade deal.
Captions in the 46-second clip stated “we’ve been busy”, adding: “So what can a country achieve in 52 weeks? Watch this space.”
The video has raised eyebrows in Westminster, where MPs believe it correctly illuminates Sunak’s thinking about the most advantageous timing for the next election.
It is within his gift when to call the ballot, as long as it takes place before January 28 2025.
Asked whether the video meant Sunak had ruled out an election in spring next year, Downing Street insisted “there is no election date confirmed” and dismissed speculation as a “fun pastime”.
Last month, chancellor Jeremy Hunt also dropped a hint that the next election would take place in autumn 2024, when he suggested Sunak would hold it once inflation falls below 3 per cent.
“I’m not wanting to give away anything about the date of the next election — not that I know — but the Bank of England says this time next year it will be 3 per cent,” Hunt told activists, according to The Sunday Times.
Recent polling has suggested Britons favour an election next spring rather than next autumn or beyond, however.
Sunak struck a humbler tone in a statement released alongside the video, conceding there was “still work to be done”. Many Tory MPs have taken a dimmer view of his record in office to date.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow paymaster general, said Sunak had been “pushed around by a chaotic and divided Conservative party” during his first 12 months in office, while Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said the country had been “in a constant cycle of Conservative sleaze and scandal, moving from one crisis to another”.
