General election 2024: Rishi Sunak calls vote for 4 July – UK politics live | General election 2024

The DUP is ready for a general election, its director of elections told PA Media.

Speaking to the PA in Belfast, Gordon Lyons said:

We are ready with a message to take to people right across Northern Ireland about who is best to represent their needs and make a difference for them at Westminster.

As far as unionism is concerned, we have a very clear message for unionists in Northern Ireland about why we are the right party to represent them.

We look forward to taking our message to people right across Northern Ireland.

Asked whether the DUP was concerned about the partnership between Reform UK and TUV (a small, hardline unionist party), who are planning to run a slate of agreed candidates, Lyons said:

We’re ready to take our message out. We have a very clear message about why we are the party that people should be voting for to represent their interests in parliament and we look forward to explaining that to the electorate.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, says he will “fight with every bone” in his body to get Rishi Sunak elected.

1/2 As today’s inflation news confirms, despite massive global shocks our country’s prospects have been transformed under Rishi’s leadership. It will be my honour to fight with every bone in my body to get him re-elected because we need a government that takes the difficult decisions necessary to unlock our nation’s extraordinary potential.

I will also stand for election in Godalming and Ash where I am proud of my local record and excited that the new boundaries include the town I went to school and the village I grew up in. It is a highly marginal seat so I will fight hard for every single vote!

If the YouGov MRP poll from April is correct, the Lib Dems are on course to beat Hunt in Godalming and Ash by 35% to 32%.

From my colleague Eleni Courea

Tory chairman Richard Holden and strategist Isaac Levido currently holding a call to brief Tory MPs about the election strategy

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says a vote for a Liberal Democrat at the election will be a vote for a local champion. At an event with supporters in Surrey, he said:

Across the country, people are crying out for change and this election is the chance to make that happen.

In so many parts of the country it’s the Liberal Democrats who can beat the Conservatives, who have taken people for granted for so long.

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a local champion — an MP who will fight for you, your family and your community to get the fair deal that you so deserve.

The media pack in Downing Street this afternoon

Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, saying they are praying for people to treat each other “with respect and kindness” during the election campaign. In a statement they say:

We would add a plea that no matter how big the issues as stake over the next few weeks, this will be a time marked by respect for one another, for good grace and a commitment to truth and integrity.

It is our prayer that, even in the heat of the debate, we will treat each other with respect and kindness.

John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister, says he will be urging Scots to vote for his party to get the Tories out. In a statement he says:

I very much look forward to leading the SNP in this election campaign.

This is the moment to remove the Tory government and put Scotland first by voting SNP. We will work night and day to protect them from the damage done by Westminster.

The SNP offers a better future to the broken Westminster consensus.

In this election we’ll be making the case why decisions about Scotland should be made here – and I’ll take that message to every part of Scotland.

In government, we’ve grown Scotland’s economy, doubled frontline funding for the NHS and ensured Scotland has the highest number of GPs per head in the UK. We’re helping with the cost of living through measures such as free prescriptions, free bus travel for under-22s and off-peak rail fares all day.

A vote for the SNP is a vote to put Scotland first – and for Scotland to become an independent country.

Keir Starmer has delivered his own video address. It contained two key messages.

• Starmer stressed his commitment to public service, and insisted that this was a priority for his party too. Referring to his record as director of public prosecutions, he said:

Service of our country is the reason and the only reason why I am standing here now asking for your vote. I believe with patience, determination and that commitment to service, there is so much pride and potential we can unlock in our country. So here it is, the future of the country in your hands.

He also insisted that Labour would fight the election campaign in a new “spirit of service: country first, party second”.

If [the Conservatives] get another five years they will feel entitled to carry on exactly as they are. Nothing will change,

A vote for Labour is a vote for stability, economic and political, a politics that treads more lightly on all our lives. A vote to stop the chaos.

The royal family is scaling back engagements while the election campaign is on. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said:

Following the prime minister’s statement this afternoon calling a general election, the royal family will – in accordance with normal procedure – postpone engagements that may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign. Their Majesties send their sincere apologies to any of those who may be affected as a result.

But D-Day engagements are going ahead, the palace says.

Here are the full election-related dates announced by No 10.

Friday 24 May – Parliament prorogued

Thursday 30 May – Parliament dissolved

Thursday 4 July – General election

Tuesday 9 July – New parliament meets for election of speaker and swearing-in of MPs

Wednesday 17 July – State opening of parliament, with king’s speech

Here are a selection of pictures from outside Downing Street as Rishi Sunak called a general election for 4 July.

“Things can only get wetter.” If Rishi Sunak was setting out to make people feel sorry for him, he succeeded brilliantly. Otherwise, it was hard to find any redeeming features in that speech.

First of all, the optics. Sunak got drenched, and he looked miserable. If you believe in the weather gods, they clearly vote Labour. And whoever was playing ‘Things can only get better’ on a loudspeaker in Whitehall almost drowned him out completely (drowned being the operative word today). The Tory legislation that was supposed to ban noisy protests clearly did not work as well as Priti Patel intended.

On the announcement, we got the election date, but Sunak made no attempt to explain why he is calling it for 4 July, when until very recently he had been planning for an autumn election. There was no real need for an explanation, but it would have been nice to have one. Some commentators are describing this a “gamble”. But that implies he is expecting a positive outcome. This feels more like a capitulation, a recognition that all of his other options are worse.

Sunak was at his most popular when he was announcing the furlough scheme as chancellor, and he made this the centre of his pitch to the electorate. But he was on much weaker ground when talking about more recent policies. “We are stopping the boats with our Rwanda partnership, and we will ensure the next generation grows up smoke free,” he said. But the boats aren’t stopping, and the legislation to create a smoke-free generation almost certainly won’t become law, because the election is happening now.

On Labour, he said Keir Starmer could not be trusted, and that Labour does not have a plan. But Labour does have a plan, as the Tories admitted last week when they published a 20-page document costing it. And all the polling evidence suggests that people aren’t scared of Starmer, and that they trust him more than Sunak.

“I have never and will never leave the people of this country to face the darkest of days alone,” Sunak said at one point. The problem is, it seems that voters want Sunak to leave them alone, and to take his party off to oppositon. He has just six weeks to turn that around.

Keir Starmer has released a video with his own message. He sums up what he is offering with one word: “Change.”

Sunak says he is guided by what is right, not by what is easy.

He goes on:

I can’t say the same thing for the Labour party because I don’t know what they offer.

And in truth I don’t think you know either.

And that’s because they have no plan. There is no bold action. And as a result the future can only be uncertain with them.

On the 5th of July, either Keir Starmer or I will be prime minister. He has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power.

If he was happy to abandon all the promises he made to become leader leader once he got the job, how can you know that he won’t do exactly the same thing if he were to become prime minister?

If you don’t have the conviction to stick to anything you say, if you don’t have the courage to tell people what you want to do, and if you don’t have a plan, how can you possibly be trusted to lead our country, especially at this most uncertain of times?

Sunak is now talking about government achievements.

We’ve tackled inflation, controlled debt, cut workers’ taxes, and increased the state pension by £900.

We’ve reduced taxes on investment and seized the opportunities of Brexit to make this the best country in the world to grow a business, put record amounts of funding into our NHS and ensured it is now training the doctors and nurses it needs in the decades to come.

Sunak says the election will be a choose – who will take the right decisions to give people a better future.

(Sunak is getting drenched in the rain.)

Sunak is almost being drowned out by someone playing ‘Things can only get better” very, very loudly in Whitehall.

Sunak says the king has granted the dissolution of parliament, and the election will be on 4 July.