George Osborne has predicted that the next general election will take place on November 14.
The former chancellor urged voters to “save the date” after he was “told” the date had been worked into Number 10 plans for 2024.
In the newest episode of Political Currency, the podcast he hosts with the former Labour cabinet minister Ed Balls, Osborne said: “We know this is going to be the general election year… Nov 14, save the date.
“A little birdie has told me that the various work programmes required to get ready for a general election have that date singled out. I’m pretty certain that is the date that Downing Street has currently selected.
“It doesn’t mean, of course, they won’t be pushed off it.”
An election on 14 November would mean Sunak announcing it at Conservative Party conference in early October.
Osborne, who is close to many of those around Sunak, added that “logic leads you [to the date]” in the wake of opinion polls that show the Conservatives 18 points behind in the polls.
Rishi Sunak confirms election will be next year, despite legal right to wait until January 2025
He said: “By the way, logic leads you there because you’re not going to have it in the first half of the year. I mean, this pretence that Rishi Sunak could have a May election was something we discussed last year. It’s a non-starter. He’s more than 20 points behind in the opinion polls. He’s not going to have a spring election.
He added: “So then you’re left with the autumn. And you’re probably thinking: ‘I know, we’ll have the party conference as a kind of launch pad. We’ll fit in an autumn statement, like a mini-budget, either before that or immediately after it.’ And that kind of leads you into mid-November. So 14 November kind of writes itself.”
Speaking on a visit to Nottinghamshire last week, Rishi Sunak said: “My working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year and in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
Rishi Sunak suggests general election will be in ‘second half of the year’
Sunak has until January 2025 to hold an election, and Labour politicians had speculated that he would do so in May this year.
Osborne also said Sunak had made a mistake in the first few weeks of the year by focusing on immigration rather than the economy.
“I was listening at home, I was thinking: why are you going on about immigration and asylum seekers and Rwanda again? That’s how we ended last year, and it’s a mess.
“I’m not saying immigration’s not a very important issue, but let’s be honest, it’s not like the public think that the Conservatives have got a grip on it at the moment. You should be talking about the economy.”
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