Sunak refuses to rule out a July general election

The Prime Minister on Tuesday during his trip to Poland has refused to rule out a July general election.

The Prime Minister told reporters on the flight, “All I’m going to say is the same thing I say every time.

“As I said, I think it was in the first week of January, my working assumption is an election in the second half of the year.”

If the local May elections prove disastrous this could end up with Rishi Sunak facing a leadership challenge and he could be forced to have an earlier polling day to save division within the Tory Party.

In March the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has hinted that the general election could be held this October.

Hunt told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee of the possibility that in October he will set out the government’s next Whitehall spending review.

The Chancellor pushed away speculation he was going to “go early” as he ruled out a 2 May election.

When asked about the government’s spending review, the Chancellor said on Tuesday, “No governments decide a spending review this far ahead of when that spending review is happening.

“This particular spending review has to be complete before next April when the next financial year starts.

“And of course if the general election is in October that will mean it is very, very tight and that is why we are thinking in advance about the most important element of that spending review which is the productivity element…”