A general election in the United Kingdom must be held at least once every five years to elect MPs to the House of Commons. However, under the current legal framework, the prime minister has the power to call a general election at any point before this five-year deadline expires.

The last general election was held on 4 July 2024. The current parliament first met on 9 July 2024.

Current rules on election timing

The timing of general elections is governed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. This act repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which had introduced fixed five-year terms and set out specific conditions for an early election.

The 2022 act restored the previous system, effectively returning the power to choose the election date to the prime minister. The act effectively revived the monarch’s prerogative power to dissolve parliament – a power that, by convention, is exercised on the advice of the prime minister.

This means the prime minister can request a dissolution of parliament and call a general election at a time of their choosing.

While the prime minister has this flexibility, there is a hard legal limit on the length of a parliament. A parliament is automatically dissolved on the fifth anniversary of the day it first met. Polling day for a general election takes place 25 working days later.

Section 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act states: “If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.”

When is the next general election?

By law, the latest possible date for the next general election is 15 August 2029.

The current parliament first met on 9 July 2024. Therefore, it will automatically dissolve on 9 July 2029. A general election occurs 25 working days after parliament is dissolved, setting the latest possible polling day as 15 August 2029.

By convention, UK parliamentary elections are held on a Thursday. The convention is thought to have originated because Thursday was the traditional market day in many towns. It was believed that holding the election on this day would see more people travelling into their local town, which might in turn encourage a higher turnout.

The last non-Thursday election was on Tuesday, 27 October 1931. Before 1918, general elections were held over a fortnight or more, across multiple days. The first single-day election took place in 1918, as required by the Representation of the People Act 1918.

The evolution of election timing

For much of modern history, the UK system was one of prime ministerial choice within a five-year maximum term. Prime ministers could call a “snap” election when political conditions were favourable to their party.

In the 40 years prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, if the governing party was ahead in the polls it tended to schedule an election in the Spring after four years. This happened under the Conservatives in 1983 and 1987, and under Labour in 2001 and 2005. Only when a governing party was behind in the polls, did it tend to wait for its full five-year term to expire, doing so in the hope (normally forlorn) that its fortunes could improve. This was the experience of the Labour government in 2010 and the Conservative government in 1997.

A commitment to legislate for five-year fixed term parliaments was included in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition agreement.

The agreement, produced in May 2010, stated: “We will establish five-year fixed-term parliaments. We will put a binding motion before the House of Commons stating that the next general election will be held on the first Thursday of May 2015. Following this motion, we will legislate to make provision for fixed-term parliaments of five years. This legislation will also provide for dissolution if 55% or more of the House votes in favour.”

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FPTA) largely fulfilled the remit set out in the coalition agreement.

Under the legislation, an early election could only be held if two-thirds of all MPs voted for one, or if the government lost a formal vote of no confidence and no alternative government could be formed within 14 days.

In part, the legislation represented a binding commitment by the prime minister, David Cameron, not to unilaterally collapse the coalition and call an election at a politically advantageous moment for the Conservatives.

The parliament that sat from 2010 until the 2015 general election stands as the only fixed-term parliament in the history of British democracy. Indeed, while the act was intended to create permanent stability, it ironically preceded one of the most volatile periods in British politics.

The 2017 and 2019 general elections were both “snap” elections. The 2017 contest, called by Theresa May as prime minister, came after the government successfully secured a two-thirds majority in parliament in favour of an early election under the terms of the 2011 legislation.

The 2019 election, however, came after the government led by Boris Johnson passed a one-line bill (the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019) to circumvent the FPTA. The bill therefore only required only simple majorities in parliament.

The Conservative manifesto for the 2019 general election featured a commitment to repeal the FTPA.

The manifesto stated: “We will get rid of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act – it has led to paralysis at a time the country needed decisive action.”

Example of gaps between previous UK general elections

The Triennial Act 1640, passed by the revolutionary Long Parliament shortly before the outbreak of civil war, mandated that parliament must convene at least once every three years, even without the king’s summons. This represented a significant check of the sovereign’s prerogative powers.

Previously, in March 1629, King Charles I used his prerogative powers to dissolve parliament, beginning an 11-year period of ruling without it, known as ‘Personal Rule’. The dissolution marked a complete rupture between the king and the commons. Opponents came to label the period of personal rule that followed as the “11 years’ tyranny”.

The Septennial Act 1715 created seven-year parliaments.

1910 general elections

There were two general elections in 1910. The January 1910 election was triggered by a constitutional crisis following the House of Lords’ rejection of the People’s Budget proposed by David Lloyd George as chancellor. Although the Liberal Party lost its landslide majority (secured in 1906), H. H. Asquith remained prime minister with the support of the Irish nationalist bloc and Labour.

The second election, held in December 1910, was called to resolve the ongoing deadlock between the commons and the Lords regarding the upper chamber’s power of veto. In the wake of the People’s Budget crisis, Asquith sought another fresh mandate to curb the peers’ authority.

The December election produced an almost identical result – a hung parliament with the Liberals as the largest party. This set the stage for the Parliament Act 1911, which curtailed the Lords’ absolute veto, allowing them only to delay legislation for up to two years.

The Parliament Act also amended the Septennial Act 1715, reducing the maximum parliamentary term from seven to five years.

1918 general election

As a result of the Parliament Act, the December 1910 general election meant that the next general election was due no later than 31 January 1916. During the First World War, however, the parliament elected in 1910 prolonged its existence through special legislation.

As a result, there was an eight year gap between the December 1910 election and the December 1918 election. (Ironically, under the old Septennial Act, the parliament elected in December 1910 would not have expired until early 1918.)

1945 general election

The 1945 general election followed the break-up of the wartime coalition government shortly after VE Day in May 1945. The prime minister, Winston Churchill, initially wanted to maintain the cross-party wartime coalition until victory in the Pacific was secured; however, Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, expressed his wish for the swift dissolution of parliament.

The election, which resulted in an historic Labour landslide, marked the first time voters in the United Kingdom had gone to the polls for nearly a decade. The last election was held in 1935.

General elections were successively suspended by parliament during the Second World War.

1974 general elections

There were two general elections in 1974. The February 1974 general election, called by the Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath, produced the first hung parliament since 1929. Heath had called the election to seek a fresh mandate to face down a national miners’ strike that had forced the country to adopt a three-day working week since 1 January.

The Labour Party, led by former prime minister Harold Wilson, gained 14 seats but was left 17 seats short of an overall majority.

The unstable parliamentary arithmetic made another election effectively inevitable. It followed in October of the same year; 1974 therefore became the first year to feature two general elections since 1910.

Wilson was returned as prime minister in October, with a slim majority of just three seats.

2015 general election

The 2015 general election was the first to be held under the provisions of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. Consequently, for the first time in modern history, the exact date of the poll was known years in advance, removing the “will-they-won’t-they” speculation that had characterised previous Westminster cycles.

The contest was widely predicted to result in another hung parliament. But the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, secured a surprise majority. The party won 330 seats, up 24, on a 36.9% vote share.

The election was a disaster for the Liberal Democrats, who were reduced from 57 to just eight seats. Several high-profile Liberal Democrat cabinet ministers, including Vince Cable, Danny Alexander and Ed Davey, lost their seats.

2017 general election

On 18 April 2017, despite previous insistences she would not, prime minister Theresa May called a snap election – with a view to capitalising on the Conservative Party’s large poll lead (as high as 20 points) over Labour.

Under the FTPA, an election had not been due until May 2020.

The 2017 contest was the only snap election called according to the measures set out in the 2011 act.

May calculated that an election would see her majority increase, thus strengthening her hand in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. But the Conservative Party’s hyper-personal, quasi-presidential campaign was widely seen as disastrous. It began with a clear emphasis on the slogan “strong and stable”, but was marred by missteps – including a major U-turn on social care policy (dubbed the “dementia tax”).

In contrast, the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, ran an unexpectedly effective and energetic campaign. The result left the Conservatives as the largest party with 317 seats, a net loss of 13 and nine short of the 326 required for an overall majority. Labour made a net gain of 30 seats to finish on 262.

2019 general election

Boris Johnson’s Conservative government spent the latter months of 2019 battling the provisions of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

On 4 September 2019, the House of Commons backed a bill designed to prevent the UK leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement on the 31 October deadline. The vote marked the peak of an extraordinary week of high political drama – wherein the government confirmed its intention to prorogue parliament for five weeks, lost its majority, expelled 21 of its own MPs, had two cabinet ministers resign, and failed to secure a general election.

The bill passed its second reading by 329 votes to 300 and its third reading later the same day by 327 to 299.

Johnson won the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest on a platform of delivering Brexit “do or die” and “no ifs no buts”. The Brexit withdrawal date had previously been scheduled for 29 March 2019 – before two successive extensions (of Article 50) to 12 April and then 31 October.

The prime minister immediately moved a motion under the FTPA to call a general election. It was supported by 298 votes to 56 – short of the two-thirds majority of MPs required under the 2011 act.

The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Act received royal assent on 9 September. On this same day, a second attempt to trigger a snap election failed 293-46.

Parliament was officially prorogued in the early hours of 10 September in controversial circumstances. Prorogation in order to secure a ‘no deal’ Brexit – the default legal position under EU law’s Article 50 process – had been a point of debate in the 2019 Tory leadership contest.

On 24 September 2019, the supreme court unanimously ruled that the prime minister’s request for the queen to prorogue parliament was unlawful. Eleven justices, led by Lady Hale, ruled that the prorogation was “void and of no effect”, meaning parliament could be reconvened the following day.

On 28 October, Johnson and the EU formally approved the extension of the Brexit withdrawal date to 31 January 2020.

In total, the Johnson government tried three times to call an election under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, but failed on each occasion to secure the required two-thirds majority of the total membership of the commons.

On 30 October, the government introduced the Early Parliamentary General Election Bill, later act, which set the date for a general election on 12 December.

The bill circumvented the official procedure provided for in the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, and therefore only required a simple majority. It passed by 439 votes to 22 at third reading. This set the stage for the first December election since 1923.

The 2019 general election resulted in an 80-seat Conservative majority, precipitating the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU on 31 January 2020.

2024 general election

The 2024 general election was the first to be held after the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 formally repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. This allowed the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to request the dissolution of parliament from the monarch at a time of his own choosing, within a maximum five-year term.

Despite the technical freedom to wait until January 2025, Sunak defied expectations and called a snap election in a surprise statement in the pouring rain outside 10 Downing Street on 22 May.

This inauspicious start kicked off an omnishambolic Conservative campaign, marred by a series of high-profile gaffes Conservative – including Sunak’s early departure from D-Day commemorations and a betting scandal in which several Conservative candidates and officials were investigated for allegedly betting on the July election date. Labour’s campaign, in contrast, was highly disciplined and cautious, constructed around the single-word slogan: “Change”.

The result was a political earthquake. Labour secured 411 seats and a commanding House of Commons majority of 174. Conversely, it represented the worst defeat in the history of the Conservative Party, which was reduced to just 121 MPs. The Labour and Conservative parties received their lowest combined vote share (57.4%) in the era of universal suffrage.

Electoral cycles elsewhere in the UK

Electoral cycles vary both within the United Kingdom and internationally. For example, unlike the parliament situated at Westminster, the devolved legislatures of the United Kingdom all operate on fixed terms: elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and the Northern Ireland Assembly are generally held every five years.

Scotland: devolved electoral cycle

Section 2 of the Scotland Act 1998 originally provided for four-year fixed term parliaments. The Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 extended this to five years.

Under section 3 of the Scotland Act 1998, which established the Scottish Parliament, a snap election can be triggered if at least two-thirds of the members vote in favour of an early dissolution. This was done in order to reduce the chance of devolved elections clashing with general elections to the parliament at Westminster, following the passage of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.

The FTPA required that UK general elections take place every five years on the first Thursday in May. Had no adjustments been made, this schedule would have resulted in the Westminster, Scottish and Welsh legislatures all holding elections simultaneously in May 2015.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 contained a provision that moved the date of the Scottish Parliament election to 5 May 2016. The Scottish parliament’s 2020 legislation then confirmed the move to five year fixed-term parliaments.

In Scotland, a snap election also follows if the legislature fails to nominate a first minister within 28 days of a vacancy.

Wales: devolved electoral cycle

Under reforms which came into force in 2026, the fixed term of the Senedd was reduced to four years.

Previously, the Wales Act 2014 extended the legislature’s fixed term from four to five years. As in Scotland, this was to avoid clashes with UK general elections under the FTPA.

However, the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 changed the length of term back to four years. Introducing the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill, the then constitution minister, Mick Antoniw, observed that “four-year terms were the norm in Welsh democracy at the point of devolution and only changed in response to the UK Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011.”

He added: “That act has since been repealed, and I believe that a return to four-year terms would more appropriately balance considerations of democratic renewal and accountability to the people of Wales.”

Moreover, the Senedd follows the same 28-day rule as the Scottish Parliament. If the Senedd fails to make a nomination within this period, then the secretary of state for Wales is required to propose a day for the holding of an election. And under section 5(2) of the Government of Wales Act 2006, an election date is named if two-thirds of members vote for a dissolution.

The presiding officers of the Scottish and Welsh legislatures also have the power to vary their election date by up to one month from the standard date, which is the first Thursday in May.

Northern Ireland: devolved electoral cycle

The Northern Ireland Act 1998 originally provided that, unless the assembly was dissolved early, elections would take place every four years on the first Thursday in May. This was changed by the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, which aligned the assembly with the other devolved legislatures by extending its fixed term from four to five years.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is also unique in that its operation is frequently interrupted by the collapse of power-sharing. Under the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022, the parties are given 24 weeks to form an executive (following an election or in the event the executive collapses), before the secretary of state for Northern Ireland is compelled to propose a date for an election.

Electoral cycles around the world

Internationally, electoral timetables also differ widely.

In the United States, the president is elected for a fixed four-year term, while members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms. Senators serve six-year terms, with one third of the Senate elected every two years.

In Germany, elections to the federal parliament, the Bundestag, take place every four years.

France operates a five-year electoral cycle for both its president and its National Assembly. The French president can dissolve the National Assembly and call for new legislative elections.

In Japan, the House of Representatives of the National Diet can be dissolved at any time by the emperor on the advice of the cabinet, led by the prime minister. Under the constitution of Japan, all members of the House of Representatives serve a maximum term of four years.