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Maybe I’m missing something. In fact I’m sure I am as I don’t follow UK politics closely at all. Mostly what I know is from scrolling past headlines like this one.
Confusing thing #1: My understanding is the Conservative (Tory?) party is struggling so the PM called for a “snap” election.
If you’re not doing great, wouldn’t it make more sense to try and weather the storm and work to make things sunnier before the next election rather than call for an election amidst the storm?
Confusing thing #2: If you are in said storm and now looking down the barrel of an election, wouldn’t that be the opposite of the time you would want to announce your unpopular policy ideas?
This really sounds like someone who is trying to get fired instead of quit.
So what am I missing?
The latest possible date the election could have been is January 2025, but that was practically very unlikely as i) there is an extremely sharp generational divide in voting intentions (far sharper than in most Western democracies) and January would have meant the Tories having to get their elderly core voters to the polls in the middle of winter, and ii) a January vote would have meant a campaign running over Christmas, and everyone would have punished Sunak for that. The widespread expectation was for an autumn election.
It's unclear why Sunak jumped earlier but likely a combination of various factors:
them being worried the economy will not get better by the autumn (so avoids going to the polls after a summer of bad economic news);
going early means their main opponents on the right (Reform) don't have time to get their act together and select candidates in all seats (which they would have done by the autumn);
their flagship immigration policy is controversial and expensive, yet likely to have an underwhelming impact on illegal immigration levels, and they'll look like complete idiots for centring an autumn election on a 'stop the boats' slogan if there's another summer of small boat arrivals in the meantime; and
Sunak personally is fed up - he's very much a political child of the far-right (an avowed Brexiter long before Boris Johnson or Liz Truss converted to the cause) yet the far-right of the Tory Party don't see him as one of their own and have been constant thorns in his side throughout his leadership - he may just want out at this stage.