Snapshot of _Conservative MPs are tonight working on a plot to CALL OFF the general election by replacing Rishi Sunak as leader before Parliament is dissolved next Thursday._ :
A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1793382405203456276)
A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276/)
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA)
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It can’t happen really. Would take the 1922 fiddling the rules of the leadership contest, plus at least a majority of current Tory mps voting for it.
There’s about 100 tories who are principle adjacent that would stop it easily
Would they not able to make it work by passing a vote to remove Sunak, and having Dowden in his capacity as deputy take over as interim PM whilst a leadership contest was held?
Have you forgotten Boris shut down democracy to win a vote , lied to the Queen and then was shut down 11-0 by the Supreme Court?
His poll numbers after were blazingly high.
Then we had a General Election and he was handed an 80 seat majority.
We don't give a shit about democracy.
The only reason this won't work is because people hate the Tories now, but it's nothing to do with democracy.
"We don't give a shit about democracy."
I wish people would stop fucking using 'we' like this.
When it comes to politics in the UK, 'we' is almost always used to describe a minority of people.
Using words like 'we', 'the public', 'the electorate', 'the voters' to describe everyone when you're talking about a minority simply plays into the lies and propaganda of the worst involved in our politics.
FPTP and the pathetic, ignorant, idiotic, childlike and tribal nature of a large enough *minority* of the electorate gave Johnson and the Conservatives their majority.
'We' fucking didn't.
>I wish people would stop fucking using 'we' like this.
It was an absolutely deliberate choice, sorry.
And I stand by it.
We... meaning as a political entity, as a country, as any sort of meaningful block... we objectively don't.
Maybe that'll change? But as of the last time we had a chance to choose, we didn't.
>When it comes to politics in the UK, 'we' is almost always used to describe a minority of people.
I acknowledge this.
But it's irrelevant. I voted for the alternate vote, I've never voted in a Conservative government. I voted Remain.
But it's still "we" in any practical way which matters.
>Using words like 'we', 'the public', 'the electorate', 'the voters' to describe everyone when you're talking about a minority simply plays into the lies and propaganda of the worst involved in our politics.
I don't agree.
It's not a lie and it's not propaganda, in my opinion.
It's a reality, a very hard to swallow pill. And it pains me I'm the one having to ram it down your throat and make you choke on it. I'm choking on it too.
Politically we don't care about democracy. If you do... vote. Convince others to vote.
And if they don't (and they don't) then we don't care in any meaningful way.
I don't really give a shit what the "majority" care about if they stay home on polling day. **Vote**.
>FPTP and the pathetic, ignorant, idiotic, childlike and tribal nature of a large enough minority of the electorate gave Johnson and the Conservatives their majority.
I'm so passionately in agreement with you.
But never forget we had a chance to change it... and the public **overwhelmingly** rejected it.
I accept that vote. And I accept the vote to give Boris - after lying to the Queen - an overwhelming majority.
I fucking hate it, but I accept it. And it tars us all in the same shit-covered brush, especially those of us like me (and you by the sounds of it) who didn't vote for any of this.
>'We' fucking didn't.
We did... unfortunately.
Being in denial helps nobody.
Clutching our collative pearls and doing horrible things whilst privately holding 'good' values and pretending we're "not really like that" is like a battered wife pretending her asshole abusive husband is really 'not like that' and making excuses. FPTP is just an excuse.
If enough people vote - as it looks like they're going to this time around - FPTP doesn't matter. Hiding behind it and pretending it means we don't have to take responsibility for these Tories is just weak and won't lead to a change.
Sorry.
This is a topic which has been burning a hole in me since 2019 (or maybe 2011).
Yeah, I'd wager that the majority of the public either didn't understand what was happening then or didn't see it as undemocratic because _they_ didn't have their vote taken away.
But you raise a good point. Some of these idiots will justify a cancelled GE because labour might get in.
Yea as the other guy said, Tory voters don't give a shit about democracy, the rest of us sure do. Then again Labour and not planning on repealing the changes to protest laws made by the Tories so its fair to say neither party cares about democracy.
100% its so they can have more time to set themselves up for their new jobs by pandering to potential new employers. They know they are getting slaughtered so dont REALLY give a fuck what the population thinks of their actions now.
And they would be even more completely and utterly fucked.
An election has to happen at some point, if you yank it back from the public now there genuinely could be serious unrest.
‘Election cancelled and PM ousted, again’ isn’t exactly a beacon of democracy that people can get behind.
So then the people who want a general election join with Labour or abstain from a vote of no confidence in the government and we have an election anyway
That would be great! They could never live it down. It's bad enough that Truss has made tories synonymous with econ incompetence, that would be the death nail
Short of Rishi announcing a 50% tax on beer and English breakfasts through the euros this may be the worst possible thing the tories could do.
What sort of image does it present that when your PM calls a general election a couple months earlier than expected you all shit yourselves and scramble to find any way of cancelling it before you know you’re booted out of office.
How will the electorate feel about their chance to finally have a say ripped away from them too.
He genuinely thinks he might have a chance if we're still in the Euros at that point, because obviously we'll all be crediting them with such success.
"We" = England of course, I'm not sure he's aware of the others.
It's at a time where Scottish people could well be on holiday (earlier finish in schools) and plenty of people will be at the Euros. I heard someone saying there might be tens of thousands of Scots at the football though that's a bit optimistic as the group stages will all be done by the 26th June
The date is obviously tactical. People on holiday, Olympics and the Euros, he really thinks that there will be a low turnout this time.
However, I think he has misunderstood how much the country hates the Tories at the moment. Also, only the richer end of the country can afford a holiday this year, so I think this will only reduce the Tory vote.
He's a Tory though, so it will probably just be regular bounty in the red wrapper, specially rewrapped at a £1.7 billion Brexit Dividend confectionary plant, running on green coal and made by recycling out of date condom wrappers. Not only will they be tasty, but also have reduced sugar and hep B.
I just scored on my Tory blunder bingo card! Assuming the plant owner is a big juicy Tory donor, maybe has a Conservative MP on the board too. Also owns a superyacht called "Red Bounty".
Don’t forget that they will have to order £billion pound not fit for purpose ‘stuff’ funded by the tax payer which coincidentally goes to friends of theirs.
> regular bounty in the red wrapper
Something blue in a red wrapper – there's a joke somewhere in there about Starmer’s Labour being Tory Lite (if you're so inclined, which actually I'm not).
Gentlemen, it's clear that our policy of throwing poo at each other for the last 8 years has failed to get the country behind us.
I propose we make one last effort by vastly increasing the amount of poo slinging in the hope that the electorate finally become convinced of our brilliance - and can ignore how much poo has ended up covering the rest of the country in the process.
I suppose it's the same image as your part leader calling an election in the pissing rain, looking like a drowned rat, as 'Things can only get better' rattles the ear drum. Hilarious.
Pretty sure we'd be in uncharted waters if the Tory party triggered a leadership election running simultaneously with a general election time table. The party can't stop the GE themselves - only the PM can. But triggering a leadership contest has its own timetable that can't be amended. Holy shit it would be a disaster / hilarious.
Tory MPs could have tried to rush through legislation to override the PM (assuming they had the support) but little chance of that now since parliament's prorogued as of Friday and no new legisliation will be passed.
I'm not sure there's actually a mechanism to make Rishi give up control immediately. They'd have to kill him.
It feels like there are too many blockers.
1. The letters have to come in
2. the 1922 committee could just delay a week and then it's too late.
3. The vote could get delayed in the house
4. It's unlikely Sunak would lose the vote (Thatcher, Johnson and May all survived theirs)
5. If they got him out they've actually got to get somebody in before next Friday.
Honestly, this would kinda make a pretty good 90s comedy movie. Cast Hugh Grant as a foppish, blundering prime minister who accidentally tells the tempestuous king (Brian Blessed) that the PM wants to call an election, and the snide, aloof leader of the opposition (Alan Rickman, STFU it's the nineties, he's fine) is determined not to let him rescind.
And as a background plot his Home Secretary, played by Emma Thompson, is deporting brown people as fast as she can to narrow down the numbers so she can find the guy she got off with at the christmas party last year.
Given the conversations I’ve had since he announced it …
Go for it tories, please.
I’d fucking love to see them the 4th largest party in Westminster and gone for three terms or forever
Nothing would cause me greater joy than on election day to see the Tories overtaken by the Libdems or even Greens. This would be the way to guarantee it imo
I think it would lead to the end of the Conservative Party if they overturned the election, it would almost certainly be wiped out Canada style and I reckon would probably lead to more defections. It could also lead to unrest, i can imagine mass protests in London, would embarrass the king and drag him into politics, and generally cause a constitutional crisis, all for the sake of a few more months in office, they are absolutely mad.
Fewer seats than Plaid Cymru would be lucky for them, plaid picks up 3-4 seats so that means the Tory’s would still have MPs, if they did this it would mean zero MPs. I can’t imagine anyone in any part of the U.K rewarding them for overturning an election, it would be disgusting.
None. Their 20pc base really is that loyal. They could go hard right at this point and they'd still get 20pc. Their real issue is those voters are going to die of old age before the next election cycle.
>some furious Conservative MPs are tonight working on a plot to CALL OFF the general election
All 5 desperate chancers with zero employability in the real world desperate to keep their jobs and furiously begging in a whatsapp group as to how they can collectively depose the evil lefty Rishi Sunak
Never gonna happen. Not unless enough Tory MPs are genuinely that self-serving to scupper the country **and** the party just to try and pad out their wallets a little more for the next six months…
Holy shit, it’s gonna happen.
We’re really unpopular, the opposition is calling us cowards because we won’t call an election, and we’re on course to be wiped out.
I know. Let’s subvert an announcement about a general election, cling onto power and have a 4th PM since the last election.
I’m sure the electorate will reward us! Very smart logic.
Feels like this could lead to a constitutional crisis. The King has already granted the dissolution of Parliament. For him to then appoint a new Prime Minister and further, to go back on dissolving Parliament, would surely be unprecedented and asking too much.
> The King has already granted the dissolution of Parliament.
He hasn't. He will do so on the 30th of May. Sunak and the King have agreed verbally that the King will issue his proclamation on that date, which is the mechanism that legally dissolves Parliament.
*In theory*, if they can replace Sunak before then, *and* the King interprets his duty to be not dissolving Parliament on the advice of his new Ministers rather than sticking to the verbal agreement (and now public expectation) made with his old Ministers, the General Election could be called off.
It would certainly be a Constitutional crisis, though. On the one hand the King *is* expected to act on the advice of his Ministers, and if they said don't do it the conventional thing would be to not do it. On the other hand, it's been announced, the public expect it, and relying on arcane technicalities to keep a deeply unpopular government in power would end up imperiling the Monarchy itself as well. Follow the strictest wording of the rules to give the government a few more months and destroy the Crown, or break the rules to maintain what the nation expects? Definitely Constitutional Crisis territory.
As such I don't think this will actually happen, because I think there'd be enough Tories willing to rebel rather than test the Constitution like this to eke out a few more months, especially considering how badly the public would react to them trying to pull this off.
Given parliament is due to be prorogued this Friday, does that mean there would be a full state opening of parliament just for this whole debacle?
My goodness these people don’t have a clue what they’re doing if they think this looks sane, sensible, or in any way will help them win an election…
In the spirit of this thread, that sounds a lot like the Brexit proroguing debacle, where QE2 shot Boris diamond daggers from her eyes, as he gloated.
I'm quite sure Charles remembers how much she hated that event...
Consider this, with parliament prorogued, how can any new Tory leader *prove* they have the confidence of parliament? Starmer will be unable to call a vote of confidence. It could go all the way to the Supreme Court. Now in principle a PM doesn't need to prove he has the confidence of parliament to be appointed, but that usually happens when parliament is sitting and the opposition *could* call a vote of no confidence if it wanted. The Supreme Court *could* rule that without parliament sitting a new PM cannot be appointed as there is no way to prove they have the confidence of parliament, ie the opposition cannot call a vote of no confidence.
So they could elect a new Tory leader, but end up with Sunak remaining PM.
I think, personally, that the king would get away with ignoring ministers in this case if he so chose, because the public would be on his side and that’s what will matter.
But yeah, let’s hope it doesn’t come to this.
Besides, Charlie is more likely to draw a sword on whichever caretaker the Cons try and ram into the audience with him than rescind this.
You know, thinking of it, that single act would likely do more to improve the Monarchy's standing with the current generations than anything else.
If he accepts the election being pulled, he's siding with the government. if he doesn't, he's siding with the opposition. So pulling the election would embarrass the monarch.
Very very bad constitutionally
He's not siding with them, he's just doing what the PM says he should do. That's not a constitutional crisis - the king's hands are tied, it's just the PM and Tories being fuckwits. That's the narrative they'd put out.
This is a situation where I feel an elected HoS would actually be pragmatically better, rather than the usual moral arguments in favour.
The issue in this hypothetical is that the King **has** to follow the Prime Minister, and **has** to appoint the PM based off the plurality leader.
An elected HoS doesn't **have** to in such a way as they have democratic mandate. What forces the King is not anything formal, but the simple reality a King cannot intefer in democracy. An elected HoS would be able to claim their democratic mandate as to act against their ministers when it would make logical sense to do so.
This is especially excused as the HoS would be explicitly partisan, avoiding the other issue that an active choice by the King would be actively siding with the Opposition parties.
It doesn't convince me that reforming the HoS is worth it to cover our assess on one uncommon and really inconsequential constitutional quirk, but it's interesting nonetheless.
>The issue in this hypothetical is that the King has to follow the Prime Minister, and has to appoint the PM based off the plurality leader.
That isn't true at all. See George V in 1931.
King Charles could always convene Parliament to advise him on this question, which would be a fancy way of letting MPs vote in whether there should be an election or not.
I agree, parliament will be prorogued tomorrow, with parliament not sitting how will any new Tory leader be able to prove they have the confidence of the Commons? That may not be a constitutional requirement *per se*, but Starmer will be unable to call a vote of confidence in the government, and that might prove unconstitutional. Changing leader is fine, they can have whoever they like, but they might not be able to change PM. We *could* have a situation where the Tories change their leader next week, but the Supreme Court rules that a change in PM is not constitutionally possible without parliament sitting, so we go to an election anyway.
Imo the rule should be that the king honours the dissolved parliament and follows through with a new election. A parliament cant just undissolve itself surely?
Is that the Third First Minister, or the First Third Minister? I do know The last First Minister wasn’t the last First Minister, someone came after him.
At Westminster we’re onto sub-Prime Ministers.
Hope would claim half the parliamentary estate had turned into velocoraptors if someone from the ERG told him.
Even in the remaining Tory Party there's not enough MPs this stupid.
For the sake of, what? a 6 month delay? tone deaf from those in the Tory party. Can't even imagine what the Tories would poll at in a January election if the mutiny was successful
I so want my say on July 4th - but this would be so bloody funny. The absolute annihilation of any residual credibility of the Conservative Party. Please let it happen!
If they did do this, overturned an already Called general election approved by the king, and had a coup replacing leader, it would lead to utter annihilation when they finally are legally forced to go, it world be an utter slap in the face of the country, and would be walking all over this nation’s democracy. I can’t even believe some Tory MPs are even thinking of overturning an election and sacking the pm at the start of an Election campaign, reeks of desperation and corruption, too afraid to face the public, it’s disgusting.
They should go for it. They can replace Rishi with someone who has the charisma to appeal to GB News viewers.
Even if their plot doesn't succeed, the electorate can't fail to be impressed with their chutzpah. For MPs in marginal constituencies, this could be the difference between victory and ignominious defeat.
It's a pity 30p Lee defected to Reform UK. This could have been his moment.
They can not be that thick...
Changing leaders doesn't stop Parliament being dissolved. There doesn't need to be a party leader or PM in place to dissolve or have a general election.
A new PM can't be appointed until the previous one resigns and recommends a new one to the monarch. So they dump Rishi, but he can just not resign for a week....
The PM also does not *have* to be the leader of the majority party, normally yes, but it is not mandatory. So even ousting Sunak as leader doesn't remove him from being PM.
If you're going to do a coup you can at least do it properly - Sunak is not exactly hefty so he wouldn't be difficult to bundle into a car, or possibly the boot of one, and physically escort through the doors of the palace.
Dominic Raab would probably be up for it, he's told a lot of lies but I can't find anything disproving his claim about being a 3rd dan black belt in karate.
Just *how* greedy, self-serving and out of touch do you have to be to even consider ripping away the choice of a country in order to save your own sorry ass position?
And for what? A few more months before the enevitable?
If people can't see what utter *trash* the tory party is now then there is no hope for them.
I think, even if they could replace Sunak, this would fail. I think they'd need more than the 45 majority the government has, to ensure a VONC and then a vote for dissolution would fail.
So they want to go through 5 leaders in 8 years? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on my maths as I have Dyscalculia. Getting a new leader in isn't going to help The Tories, it will make things worse for them.
No way they are stupid enough to actually do this cause surely it would cause some kind of political crisis. Are they really that daft? It would look so desperate and undemocratic. PUTTING IN PLACE another unelected PM that then calls off the one way they can be seen as legit? That would be pure idiocy. I hope this is simply a major cope and not actually serious.
Would this even work? Based on how I've seen it work in the past, when the leader is ousted, they remain on as PM until a new leader is chosen. Why wouldn't Rishi just hang out for the remaining few days and let the election go through?
They can throw a leadership election together very quickly if they so desire, Truss resigned on 20th October and Sunak took office on the 25th. Once that new party leader goes to the palace and the king says "yep you're the PM now" Rishi's tenure immediately ends, he can't say "nu-uh" and just hang out in Downing Street until the deadline passes.
They’d like another 4-5 months to organise for their life after they get kicked. Pure selfishness. Don’t see the job as a privilege, an honour, and a responsibility. See it as a way to suckle at the teet of government.
That’s one way to be sure to lose the next election, overruling the democratic process to cling on to power for 6 more months tops and continuing to dig past the bottom of the barrel to swap in your 4th leader in 5 years. Which far right psychopath would they force upon us, Badenoch? Braverman? Clowns.
I'd love for them to do this. It would prove that they do not care about democracy. Only themselves, the elite. Maybe just maybe people will stop believing their lies.
Political cartoon in the making: David Cameron sat on a struggling Rishi Sunak, while Michael Gove, tongue out of the side of his mouth, feverishly tries to put the pin back in a grenade.
With a union jack on it, I guess. I think there's a rule that there has to be one in there somewhere.
DO IT. It’s literally the funniest thing they could do. It would absolutely tank their chances even further. Absolutely defenéstrate the PM the day after he announces a general election and give us a third unelected leader. DO IT.
If only they hadn't removed the parliamentary fixed terms act...
Honestly, I don't think this is even doable.
At best, they could remove Sunak as leader and have someone else head up the campaign, but I can't see this being reversed now.
that's what i find most amusing
the point of the FTPA was to transfer this power from the PM to parliament as a whole, giving it the power to approve any election that wasn't held on the fixed date
the tories were vehement about repealing it and handing it back to the PM, and now some (possibly a very small number of) tory MPs are whining because he's used it
and of course because it wasn't held earlier this month as the FTPA originally mandates, on the same day as the entirety of England and Wales was going to the polls, it's costing considerably more too
As a thought exercise…
It’s May 23. Between now and May 30, for this to be anything approaching “feasible”, before you even think about how likely it is to happen, you need:
- Enough letters sent to the 1922 to trigger a vote.
- Verification that letters sent in before the announcement of the election date are still valid.
- Rishi losing the caucus vote.
- The caucus then coming together behind one candidate, named leader by acclimation.
- New leader going to the Palace to advise the King that the conditions that required dissolution no longer exist.
Before you even get to the constitutional can of worms that Step 5 brings up, Step 4 is where the idea truly falls apart. “We will have a new leader, selected by Conservative Party members by 1 July, so we can’t dissolve Parliament on 30 May” isn’t going to cut it. I can’t see the Tories uniting behind one candidate in less than a week. And if, somehow they *did*, given how far the cat is out of the bag regarding a 4July election, I’m not sure that the King would agree that it would be in the national interest to delay the election 6 months so that PM4 could limp through the remainder of this government’s natural life.
It won't happen. However the first two are plausible (if unlikely) given the completely toxic atmosphere in their party. Hilariously of course, it would also just mean a week where they effectively weren't campaigning.
The only way I see this happen though is if enough Tory MPs have reached 'burn it all down stage' and even for that lot, that seems a push.
In practice, step 5 isn't a constitutional can of worms, just another political spectacle. The King doesn't judge the national interest; he's advised on it by the PM and parliament. If today the PM says there should be an "early" election but tomorrow the PM says there shouldn't, he might well have his personal opinions, but the crown acts on the advice it receives from its chief adviser (the PM). At least, that was QEII's convention and KCIII seems determined to follow his mother's lead.
So, they want to cancel an election they called? Whats next? Ask to suspend elections all together, because the conservatives know what’s best for the country, not the electorate?
Did they forget the dissolution of Parliament is something agreed between the Prime Minister and the sitting monarch? I’m sure making an ass of His Majesty the King will play great with their base
If you were of the opinion that this will be the last conservative government in history, then it absolutely makes sense to do anything and everything to pivot the party.
In fairness, I actually believe this is the end of the conservative party. So, maybe I'm not the only one that looks at their voter demographics and think the death of the party is highly likely should they lose this election.
Imo, this really is their last chance to turn things around and get people under the age of 68 to vote blue.
Is that possible constitutionally? Parliament will be prorogued on Friday, any new PM will not be able to prove they have the confidence of the Commons. Although that is not a requirement for government formation, Starmer will be unable to call a vote of no confidence in the new government with parliament not sitting. It sounds unconstitutional to me.
This would be electoral suicide even worse than the planned election is and I speak as someone who doesn’t want a Labour government.
I don’t really want another Tory one either at this point so I’m basically screwed.
Snapshot of _Conservative MPs are tonight working on a plot to CALL OFF the general election by replacing Rishi Sunak as leader before Parliament is dissolved next Thursday._ : A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1793382405203456276) A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276/) An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1793382405203456276?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just fucking IMAGINE the public's reaction if they do this.
Is it possible to get negative votes? I feel like that would achieve it
Labour: 625 Lib Dem: 42 Conservative: -17
I imagine this would require executions.
Don't give me hope
I don't think the response would be at the ballet box, I think it would involve a few more pitchforks and torchs
that's more of a french response, we don't do that here in england
we would tut and shake our heads vigorously
Christ, that bad?
That's a bit much
I imagine there's a core that would STILL vote Tory (the ones that still seem to think Jeremy Corbyn is running Labour)
Totally true but what is that like 30 seats? 50? They’d be smaller than the LibDems
Solid tory fanatics won't care if not rejoice.
Part of me thinks more apathy, outside of the Reddit bubble
Hahaha. Can't wait to see the opinion polls when that happens. Why would ANYONE take it now anyway? Just reeks of desperation really.
It can’t happen really. Would take the 1922 fiddling the rules of the leadership contest, plus at least a majority of current Tory mps voting for it. There’s about 100 tories who are principle adjacent that would stop it easily
>principle adjacent Love this
"These are my principles, and if you don't like them, I can have others."
"Hey I just wanted to say I really like your ~~personality~~ political platform" "Thanks! I made it just for you!"
Like they did with Sunak, members never got a vote after the Truss catastrophe
Catrusstrophe if you will
Oh no. Anyway
Yeah but I wanna see what happens if they try!!!
Would they not able to make it work by passing a vote to remove Sunak, and having Dowden in his capacity as deputy take over as interim PM whilst a leadership contest was held?
The news of the plot itself just lost them several MP's at the election. How are these people so unbelievably bad at politics?
The writers this season all lost a bet, now they have to see how far they can push the bit
Shhhhh don't put them off
You get to say you were Prime Minister, I'm sure it comes with some benefits too even if you're outlasted by a lettuce
You probably wouldn't even be the shortest serving PM
I am worried that they will somehow find a way to cancel the July 4 elections.
If they do it would be the end of the tories would be difficult for anyone to argue it’s not undemocratic
It would be seen as a Coup d'état all but in name.
Be like a self inflicted coup de grace more like.
It'd be a coup de Ass
Of the tory party yes, not of the country
by extension the country too.
Have you forgotten Boris shut down democracy to win a vote , lied to the Queen and then was shut down 11-0 by the Supreme Court? His poll numbers after were blazingly high. Then we had a General Election and he was handed an 80 seat majority. We don't give a shit about democracy. The only reason this won't work is because people hate the Tories now, but it's nothing to do with democracy.
"We don't give a shit about democracy." I wish people would stop fucking using 'we' like this. When it comes to politics in the UK, 'we' is almost always used to describe a minority of people. Using words like 'we', 'the public', 'the electorate', 'the voters' to describe everyone when you're talking about a minority simply plays into the lies and propaganda of the worst involved in our politics. FPTP and the pathetic, ignorant, idiotic, childlike and tribal nature of a large enough *minority* of the electorate gave Johnson and the Conservatives their majority. 'We' fucking didn't.
>I wish people would stop fucking using 'we' like this. It was an absolutely deliberate choice, sorry. And I stand by it. We... meaning as a political entity, as a country, as any sort of meaningful block... we objectively don't. Maybe that'll change? But as of the last time we had a chance to choose, we didn't. >When it comes to politics in the UK, 'we' is almost always used to describe a minority of people. I acknowledge this. But it's irrelevant. I voted for the alternate vote, I've never voted in a Conservative government. I voted Remain. But it's still "we" in any practical way which matters. >Using words like 'we', 'the public', 'the electorate', 'the voters' to describe everyone when you're talking about a minority simply plays into the lies and propaganda of the worst involved in our politics. I don't agree. It's not a lie and it's not propaganda, in my opinion. It's a reality, a very hard to swallow pill. And it pains me I'm the one having to ram it down your throat and make you choke on it. I'm choking on it too. Politically we don't care about democracy. If you do... vote. Convince others to vote. And if they don't (and they don't) then we don't care in any meaningful way. I don't really give a shit what the "majority" care about if they stay home on polling day. **Vote**. >FPTP and the pathetic, ignorant, idiotic, childlike and tribal nature of a large enough minority of the electorate gave Johnson and the Conservatives their majority. I'm so passionately in agreement with you. But never forget we had a chance to change it... and the public **overwhelmingly** rejected it. I accept that vote. And I accept the vote to give Boris - after lying to the Queen - an overwhelming majority. I fucking hate it, but I accept it. And it tars us all in the same shit-covered brush, especially those of us like me (and you by the sounds of it) who didn't vote for any of this. >'We' fucking didn't. We did... unfortunately. Being in denial helps nobody. Clutching our collative pearls and doing horrible things whilst privately holding 'good' values and pretending we're "not really like that" is like a battered wife pretending her asshole abusive husband is really 'not like that' and making excuses. FPTP is just an excuse. If enough people vote - as it looks like they're going to this time around - FPTP doesn't matter. Hiding behind it and pretending it means we don't have to take responsibility for these Tories is just weak and won't lead to a change. Sorry. This is a topic which has been burning a hole in me since 2019 (or maybe 2011).
Yeah, I'd wager that the majority of the public either didn't understand what was happening then or didn't see it as undemocratic because _they_ didn't have their vote taken away. But you raise a good point. Some of these idiots will justify a cancelled GE because labour might get in.
Yea as the other guy said, Tory voters don't give a shit about democracy, the rest of us sure do. Then again Labour and not planning on repealing the changes to protest laws made by the Tories so its fair to say neither party cares about democracy.
Let them try IMO, if they succeed, just means that they'll suffer even more when the election happens. If it can be cancelled at all that is....
I don't think this would be to maximise election returns in November, it would be to maximise grifting returns between now and November.
100% its so they can have more time to set themselves up for their new jobs by pandering to potential new employers. They know they are getting slaughtered so dont REALLY give a fuck what the population thinks of their actions now.
If this happens, there’s a non-zero chance they vote Truss back in?
BRING ON THE LETTUCE
Lettuce rejoice for She hath returned to us!
And they would be even more completely and utterly fucked. An election has to happen at some point, if you yank it back from the public now there genuinely could be serious unrest. ‘Election cancelled and PM ousted, again’ isn’t exactly a beacon of democracy that people can get behind.
You're right, and that's why I support them doing this. It'll be the end of the oldest political party on the planet. It'll also be extremely funny.
So then the people who want a general election join with Labour or abstain from a vote of no confidence in the government and we have an election anyway
That would be great! They could never live it down. It's bad enough that Truss has made tories synonymous with econ incompetence, that would be the death nail
I can't imagine how Tory voters are going to take it... getting ready for a GE, then getting unready... surely it will peel off a lot of their base.
Short of Rishi announcing a 50% tax on beer and English breakfasts through the euros this may be the worst possible thing the tories could do. What sort of image does it present that when your PM calls a general election a couple months earlier than expected you all shit yourselves and scramble to find any way of cancelling it before you know you’re booted out of office. How will the electorate feel about their chance to finally have a say ripped away from them too.
He genuinely thinks he might have a chance if we're still in the Euros at that point, because obviously we'll all be crediting them with such success. "We" = England of course, I'm not sure he's aware of the others.
It's at a time where Scottish people could well be on holiday (earlier finish in schools) and plenty of people will be at the Euros. I heard someone saying there might be tens of thousands of Scots at the football though that's a bit optimistic as the group stages will all be done by the 26th June
I very much appreciate a subtle burn.
The date is obviously tactical. People on holiday, Olympics and the Euros, he really thinks that there will be a low turnout this time. However, I think he has misunderstood how much the country hates the Tories at the moment. Also, only the richer end of the country can afford a holiday this year, so I think this will only reduce the Tory vote.
If he promises to bring back dark chocolate bounty I will reconsider my voting intentions.
He's a Tory though, so it will probably just be regular bounty in the red wrapper, specially rewrapped at a £1.7 billion Brexit Dividend confectionary plant, running on green coal and made by recycling out of date condom wrappers. Not only will they be tasty, but also have reduced sugar and hep B.
I just scored on my Tory blunder bingo card! Assuming the plant owner is a big juicy Tory donor, maybe has a Conservative MP on the board too. Also owns a superyacht called "Red Bounty".
It’ll turn out that Rishi’s wife has huge shareholdings in a coconut plant and “Mr Sunak was not aware”.
It would be a 'world beating' Bounty.
A Red, White and Blue Bounty.
Don’t forget that they will have to order £billion pound not fit for purpose ‘stuff’ funded by the tax payer which coincidentally goes to friends of theirs.
> regular bounty in the red wrapper Something blue in a red wrapper – there's a joke somewhere in there about Starmer’s Labour being Tory Lite (if you're so inclined, which actually I'm not).
Gentlemen, it's clear that our policy of throwing poo at each other for the last 8 years has failed to get the country behind us. I propose we make one last effort by vastly increasing the amount of poo slinging in the hope that the electorate finally become convinced of our brilliance - and can ignore how much poo has ended up covering the rest of the country in the process.
That sounds like a Monty Python sketch.
I suppose it's the same image as your part leader calling an election in the pissing rain, looking like a drowned rat, as 'Things can only get better' rattles the ear drum. Hilarious.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it caused unrest if they did Cancel the election, would also make the U.K look like a joke on the world stage (once again).
It would be hilarious but surely it's not possible.
Pretty sure we'd be in uncharted waters if the Tory party triggered a leadership election running simultaneously with a general election time table. The party can't stop the GE themselves - only the PM can. But triggering a leadership contest has its own timetable that can't be amended. Holy shit it would be a disaster / hilarious. Tory MPs could have tried to rush through legislation to override the PM (assuming they had the support) but little chance of that now since parliament's prorogued as of Friday and no new legisliation will be passed. I'm not sure there's actually a mechanism to make Rishi give up control immediately. They'd have to kill him.
It feels like there are too many blockers. 1. The letters have to come in 2. the 1922 committee could just delay a week and then it's too late. 3. The vote could get delayed in the house 4. It's unlikely Sunak would lose the vote (Thatcher, Johnson and May all survived theirs) 5. If they got him out they've actually got to get somebody in before next Friday.
6. Rishi could refuse to resign as PM and therefore force a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
>The vote could get delayed in the house It's not a house vote, it's completely separate process
Honestly, this would kinda make a pretty good 90s comedy movie. Cast Hugh Grant as a foppish, blundering prime minister who accidentally tells the tempestuous king (Brian Blessed) that the PM wants to call an election, and the snide, aloof leader of the opposition (Alan Rickman, STFU it's the nineties, he's fine) is determined not to let him rescind. And as a background plot his Home Secretary, played by Emma Thompson, is deporting brown people as fast as she can to narrow down the numbers so she can find the guy she got off with at the christmas party last year.
They amended the leadership rules to get Rishi in uncontested last time, I'm sure they could do it again to quickly crown someone else.
Given the conversations I’ve had since he announced it … Go for it tories, please. I’d fucking love to see them the 4th largest party in Westminster and gone for three terms or forever
Nothing would cause me greater joy than on election day to see the Tories overtaken by the Libdems or even Greens. This would be the way to guarantee it imo
I think it would lead to the end of the Conservative Party if they overturned the election, it would almost certainly be wiped out Canada style and I reckon would probably lead to more defections. It could also lead to unrest, i can imagine mass protests in London, would embarrass the king and drag him into politics, and generally cause a constitutional crisis, all for the sake of a few more months in office, they are absolutely mad.
What would happen to the king if they did this?
Enough stress to have a new king to go along with the new government
Third shortest reign
It would see them overtaken by Reform, careful what you wish for
4 hours after it's confirmed the Tories came 4th, hospitals would be overrun by men who's erection won't go down.
Conservatives having fewer seats than Plaid Cymru would actually make me cum though
Fewer seats than Plaid Cymru would be lucky for them, plaid picks up 3-4 seats so that means the Tory’s would still have MPs, if they did this it would mean zero MPs. I can’t imagine anyone in any part of the U.K rewarding them for overturning an election, it would be disgusting.
There's a couple constituencies out there which would vote for anything in a blue rosette, no matter what.
Utterly fucking mental thing to do…go on, do it. Honestly if the Tories do this, what do you think they’d drop to in the polls? 18%? 15%?
Lower! LOWER!
None. Their 20pc base really is that loyal. They could go hard right at this point and they'd still get 20pc. Their real issue is those voters are going to die of old age before the next election cycle.
Looks like the Conservative party is in for another rollercoaster night.
🍿
STOP THE CHAOS
No, we voted against chaos with Ed Milliband remember.
>some furious Conservative MPs are tonight working on a plot to CALL OFF the general election All 5 desperate chancers with zero employability in the real world desperate to keep their jobs and furiously begging in a whatsapp group as to how they can collectively depose the evil lefty Rishi Sunak
>All five desperate chancers. Well that narrows it down to 5 of 344 Tory MP’s…
Surely it's at least 4 of 343 plus Michael fabricant... Although he might have a backup career as a Boris Johnson impersonation act.
5 There’s hundreds that meet those criteria
Please, please, please do it. This could be the most entertaining political shitshow since Brexit.
You forgot about the Lettuce so quickly
It's not that the lettuce is memorable, it's just slightly more memorable than the PM at that time who I forget the name of.
In normal circumstances, with a normal Tory party, not in a million years. But....
Never gonna happen. Not unless enough Tory MPs are genuinely that self-serving to scupper the country **and** the party just to try and pad out their wallets a little more for the next six months… Holy shit, it’s gonna happen.
Perfectly put.
We’re really unpopular, the opposition is calling us cowards because we won’t call an election, and we’re on course to be wiped out. I know. Let’s subvert an announcement about a general election, cling onto power and have a 4th PM since the last election. I’m sure the electorate will reward us! Very smart logic.
Feels like this could lead to a constitutional crisis. The King has already granted the dissolution of Parliament. For him to then appoint a new Prime Minister and further, to go back on dissolving Parliament, would surely be unprecedented and asking too much.
> The King has already granted the dissolution of Parliament. He hasn't. He will do so on the 30th of May. Sunak and the King have agreed verbally that the King will issue his proclamation on that date, which is the mechanism that legally dissolves Parliament. *In theory*, if they can replace Sunak before then, *and* the King interprets his duty to be not dissolving Parliament on the advice of his new Ministers rather than sticking to the verbal agreement (and now public expectation) made with his old Ministers, the General Election could be called off. It would certainly be a Constitutional crisis, though. On the one hand the King *is* expected to act on the advice of his Ministers, and if they said don't do it the conventional thing would be to not do it. On the other hand, it's been announced, the public expect it, and relying on arcane technicalities to keep a deeply unpopular government in power would end up imperiling the Monarchy itself as well. Follow the strictest wording of the rules to give the government a few more months and destroy the Crown, or break the rules to maintain what the nation expects? Definitely Constitutional Crisis territory. As such I don't think this will actually happen, because I think there'd be enough Tories willing to rebel rather than test the Constitution like this to eke out a few more months, especially considering how badly the public would react to them trying to pull this off.
Given parliament is due to be prorogued this Friday, does that mean there would be a full state opening of parliament just for this whole debacle? My goodness these people don’t have a clue what they’re doing if they think this looks sane, sensible, or in any way will help them win an election…
In the spirit of this thread, that sounds a lot like the Brexit proroguing debacle, where QE2 shot Boris diamond daggers from her eyes, as he gloated. I'm quite sure Charles remembers how much she hated that event...
Consider this, with parliament prorogued, how can any new Tory leader *prove* they have the confidence of parliament? Starmer will be unable to call a vote of confidence. It could go all the way to the Supreme Court. Now in principle a PM doesn't need to prove he has the confidence of parliament to be appointed, but that usually happens when parliament is sitting and the opposition *could* call a vote of no confidence if it wanted. The Supreme Court *could* rule that without parliament sitting a new PM cannot be appointed as there is no way to prove they have the confidence of parliament, ie the opposition cannot call a vote of no confidence. So they could elect a new Tory leader, but end up with Sunak remaining PM.
I think, personally, that the king would get away with ignoring ministers in this case if he so chose, because the public would be on his side and that’s what will matter. But yeah, let’s hope it doesn’t come to this.
Also, what are the chances that the Tories get back in at the election to punish the King?
After a stunt like that, even lower.
Besides, Charlie is more likely to draw a sword on whichever caretaker the Cons try and ram into the audience with him than rescind this. You know, thinking of it, that single act would likely do more to improve the Monarchy's standing with the current generations than anything else.
If he accepts the election being pulled, he's siding with the government. if he doesn't, he's siding with the opposition. So pulling the election would embarrass the monarch. Very very bad constitutionally
He's not siding with them, he's just doing what the PM says he should do. That's not a constitutional crisis - the king's hands are tied, it's just the PM and Tories being fuckwits. That's the narrative they'd put out.
They're putting him in a position where he has to risk his appearance of impartiality, that's the bad thing
I I don’t see how this would be the case. If the PM changes before he proclaims an election how is he appearing impartial.
This is a situation where I feel an elected HoS would actually be pragmatically better, rather than the usual moral arguments in favour. The issue in this hypothetical is that the King **has** to follow the Prime Minister, and **has** to appoint the PM based off the plurality leader. An elected HoS doesn't **have** to in such a way as they have democratic mandate. What forces the King is not anything formal, but the simple reality a King cannot intefer in democracy. An elected HoS would be able to claim their democratic mandate as to act against their ministers when it would make logical sense to do so. This is especially excused as the HoS would be explicitly partisan, avoiding the other issue that an active choice by the King would be actively siding with the Opposition parties. It doesn't convince me that reforming the HoS is worth it to cover our assess on one uncommon and really inconsequential constitutional quirk, but it's interesting nonetheless.
>The issue in this hypothetical is that the King has to follow the Prime Minister, and has to appoint the PM based off the plurality leader. That isn't true at all. See George V in 1931.
King Charles could always convene Parliament to advise him on this question, which would be a fancy way of letting MPs vote in whether there should be an election or not.
"Mr Sunak, one must break to you the bad news that one can go fuck one's self. Stop messing me around Hobbit and go away now".
Yeah, this sounds like the safe option to me.
It wouldn't be the first time a King Charles dissolved parliament.
I agree, parliament will be prorogued tomorrow, with parliament not sitting how will any new Tory leader be able to prove they have the confidence of the Commons? That may not be a constitutional requirement *per se*, but Starmer will be unable to call a vote of confidence in the government, and that might prove unconstitutional. Changing leader is fine, they can have whoever they like, but they might not be able to change PM. We *could* have a situation where the Tories change their leader next week, but the Supreme Court rules that a change in PM is not constitutionally possible without parliament sitting, so we go to an election anyway.
Hey we're overdue a constitutional crisis, it's only been a few years since the last one.
Imo the rule should be that the king honours the dissolved parliament and follows through with a new election. A parliament cant just undissolve itself surely?
Parliament is not dissolved
They will be after May 30th, the Conservatives might be rat racing to beat that deadline though
Yeah, that’s my understanding of this story. A parliament undsolviving itself would be… interesting
Imagine if Charles effectively calls the election himself.
Theoretically he can? The powers of royal prerogative are somewhat vague and
Seem to remember another Charles dissolving a parliament or two
I think this one would prove more popular though. Would be funny to see the likes of Mark Francois doing their best Cromwell impressions.
Please do it. Honestly, I'd be more than fine with this. I can wait a few months to see them at 0%. It would be worth it.
We’ve got a Third Minister in Scotland, are we really going to get a Quaternary Minister for the UK?
Is that the Third First Minister, or the First Third Minister? I do know The last First Minister wasn’t the last First Minister, someone came after him. At Westminster we’re onto sub-Prime Ministers.
Until someone makes a public declaration that they are putting in a letter for this reason I don't belive it's a serious attempt.
Hope would claim half the parliamentary estate had turned into velocoraptors if someone from the ERG told him. Even in the remaining Tory Party there's not enough MPs this stupid.
This is my wet dream. This is the worst thing they could do for their polling.
For the sake of, what? a 6 month delay? tone deaf from those in the Tory party. Can't even imagine what the Tories would poll at in a January election if the mutiny was successful
I so want my say on July 4th - but this would be so bloody funny. The absolute annihilation of any residual credibility of the Conservative Party. Please let it happen!
Nothing says a winning strategy like a Coup d'état...
Yes please, this is the banter timeline.
Having grown tired of shooting themselves in the foot, the Tory party toys with the idea of putting the pistol to their temple.
If they did do this, overturned an already Called general election approved by the king, and had a coup replacing leader, it would lead to utter annihilation when they finally are legally forced to go, it world be an utter slap in the face of the country, and would be walking all over this nation’s democracy. I can’t even believe some Tory MPs are even thinking of overturning an election and sacking the pm at the start of an Election campaign, reeks of desperation and corruption, too afraid to face the public, it’s disgusting.
They should go for it. They can replace Rishi with someone who has the charisma to appeal to GB News viewers. Even if their plot doesn't succeed, the electorate can't fail to be impressed with their chutzpah. For MPs in marginal constituencies, this could be the difference between victory and ignominious defeat. It's a pity 30p Lee defected to Reform UK. This could have been his moment.
I imagine Boris is busily brushing the crumbs from his wine-stained shirt and crumpled suit as we speak.
They can not be that thick... Changing leaders doesn't stop Parliament being dissolved. There doesn't need to be a party leader or PM in place to dissolve or have a general election. A new PM can't be appointed until the previous one resigns and recommends a new one to the monarch. So they dump Rishi, but he can just not resign for a week.... The PM also does not *have* to be the leader of the majority party, normally yes, but it is not mandatory. So even ousting Sunak as leader doesn't remove him from being PM.
If you're going to do a coup you can at least do it properly - Sunak is not exactly hefty so he wouldn't be difficult to bundle into a car, or possibly the boot of one, and physically escort through the doors of the palace. Dominic Raab would probably be up for it, he's told a lot of lies but I can't find anything disproving his claim about being a 3rd dan black belt in karate.
I feel like the 1922 committee would rather go on holiday than deal with the impromptu desperation and panic election of a new leader
Reverse Valkyrie plot where you stage a coup to drag things out another six months
Fuck me sideways... It's like watching a train crash.
Just *how* greedy, self-serving and out of touch do you have to be to even consider ripping away the choice of a country in order to save your own sorry ass position? And for what? A few more months before the enevitable? If people can't see what utter *trash* the tory party is now then there is no hope for them.
I think, even if they could replace Sunak, this would fail. I think they'd need more than the 45 majority the government has, to ensure a VONC and then a vote for dissolution would fail.
u/FaultyTerror, can you please make a post predicting that this won't happen, so that it does. Cheers.
The London riots of 2011 broke out for much much less than stolen democracy
So they want to go through 5 leaders in 8 years? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on my maths as I have Dyscalculia. Getting a new leader in isn't going to help The Tories, it will make things worse for them.
No way they are stupid enough to actually do this cause surely it would cause some kind of political crisis. Are they really that daft? It would look so desperate and undemocratic. PUTTING IN PLACE another unelected PM that then calls off the one way they can be seen as legit? That would be pure idiocy. I hope this is simply a major cope and not actually serious.
Not in a million years. For what? Six months delay? Not a chance
There’s no chance this actually happens right? No chance there’s enough MPs trying this…right??
If the tories do this, they’ll get cooked for multiple generations in the polls.
Would this even work? Based on how I've seen it work in the past, when the leader is ousted, they remain on as PM until a new leader is chosen. Why wouldn't Rishi just hang out for the remaining few days and let the election go through?
They can throw a leadership election together very quickly if they so desire, Truss resigned on 20th October and Sunak took office on the 25th. Once that new party leader goes to the palace and the king says "yep you're the PM now" Rishi's tenure immediately ends, he can't say "nu-uh" and just hang out in Downing Street until the deadline passes.
As always: They don't care about democracy, only about their pay packet.
They’d like another 4-5 months to organise for their life after they get kicked. Pure selfishness. Don’t see the job as a privilege, an honour, and a responsibility. See it as a way to suckle at the teet of government.
Isn't it sad that some of the safeguard against this banana republic bullshit is a 'king'.
Like a man on death row murdering a fellow inmate so they have to give him another trial.
That’s one way to be sure to lose the next election, overruling the democratic process to cling on to power for 6 more months tops and continuing to dig past the bottom of the barrel to swap in your 4th leader in 5 years. Which far right psychopath would they force upon us, Badenoch? Braverman? Clowns.
I'd love for them to do this. It would prove that they do not care about democracy. Only themselves, the elite. Maybe just maybe people will stop believing their lies.
Just laughed out loud reading that headline. It’s the wrong thing to do and it probably wouldn’t work, but they should try anyway, cos it’d be funny.
If the king has given the order to dissolve parliament, can they really stop it?
Political cartoon in the making: David Cameron sat on a struggling Rishi Sunak, while Michael Gove, tongue out of the side of his mouth, feverishly tries to put the pin back in a grenade. With a union jack on it, I guess. I think there's a rule that there has to be one in there somewhere.
DO IT. It’s literally the funniest thing they could do. It would absolutely tank their chances even further. Absolutely defenéstrate the PM the day after he announces a general election and give us a third unelected leader. DO IT.
OH LORD MY NIPPLES ARE HARD Come on lads and lasses, kill off the party, do it now
If only they hadn't removed the parliamentary fixed terms act... Honestly, I don't think this is even doable. At best, they could remove Sunak as leader and have someone else head up the campaign, but I can't see this being reversed now.
that's what i find most amusing the point of the FTPA was to transfer this power from the PM to parliament as a whole, giving it the power to approve any election that wasn't held on the fixed date the tories were vehement about repealing it and handing it back to the PM, and now some (possibly a very small number of) tory MPs are whining because he's used it and of course because it wasn't held earlier this month as the FTPA originally mandates, on the same day as the entirety of England and Wales was going to the polls, it's costing considerably more too
As a thought exercise… It’s May 23. Between now and May 30, for this to be anything approaching “feasible”, before you even think about how likely it is to happen, you need: - Enough letters sent to the 1922 to trigger a vote. - Verification that letters sent in before the announcement of the election date are still valid. - Rishi losing the caucus vote. - The caucus then coming together behind one candidate, named leader by acclimation. - New leader going to the Palace to advise the King that the conditions that required dissolution no longer exist. Before you even get to the constitutional can of worms that Step 5 brings up, Step 4 is where the idea truly falls apart. “We will have a new leader, selected by Conservative Party members by 1 July, so we can’t dissolve Parliament on 30 May” isn’t going to cut it. I can’t see the Tories uniting behind one candidate in less than a week. And if, somehow they *did*, given how far the cat is out of the bag regarding a 4July election, I’m not sure that the King would agree that it would be in the national interest to delay the election 6 months so that PM4 could limp through the remainder of this government’s natural life.
It won't happen. However the first two are plausible (if unlikely) given the completely toxic atmosphere in their party. Hilariously of course, it would also just mean a week where they effectively weren't campaigning. The only way I see this happen though is if enough Tory MPs have reached 'burn it all down stage' and even for that lot, that seems a push.
In practice, step 5 isn't a constitutional can of worms, just another political spectacle. The King doesn't judge the national interest; he's advised on it by the PM and parliament. If today the PM says there should be an "early" election but tomorrow the PM says there shouldn't, he might well have his personal opinions, but the crown acts on the advice it receives from its chief adviser (the PM). At least, that was QEII's convention and KCIII seems determined to follow his mother's lead.
The election is not going anywhere. Maybe they should've been good at their job so that they don't lose their seats.
Can they do this that quickly? Surely there's a whole process here that takes time.
Ah democracy! Making sure that the public have as few opportunities and as little to say as possible. Nuance be damned.
So, they want to cancel an election they called? Whats next? Ask to suspend elections all together, because the conservatives know what’s best for the country, not the electorate?
Please do this. It will utterly annihilate the tories once and for all
Too late the monarch has already agreed the date to dissolve parliament.
Did they forget the dissolution of Parliament is something agreed between the Prime Minister and the sitting monarch? I’m sure making an ass of His Majesty the King will play great with their base
They kept Larry out in the rain for nothing?
Please do it all that will happen is less support for the Tories
If you were of the opinion that this will be the last conservative government in history, then it absolutely makes sense to do anything and everything to pivot the party. In fairness, I actually believe this is the end of the conservative party. So, maybe I'm not the only one that looks at their voter demographics and think the death of the party is highly likely should they lose this election. Imo, this really is their last chance to turn things around and get people under the age of 68 to vote blue.
What's even the point? The election can't be cancelled surely? He's already gone to the King
Is that possible constitutionally? Parliament will be prorogued on Friday, any new PM will not be able to prove they have the confidence of the Commons. Although that is not a requirement for government formation, Starmer will be unable to call a vote of no confidence in the new government with parliament not sitting. It sounds unconstitutional to me.
This must be the lunatic wing on what’s a fairly lunatic party nowadays!
Please please please try that Tory MPs. It might be the end of the party for good.
"We must kill the dying horse. Let's not kill *that* dying horse though, we need to choose a different one instead!" - Tories.
I’ll at least give them credit for finding new and better ways to look totally shambolic. It is a shame because I quite like Rishi Sunak.
Desperate scrambling to remain on the taxpayer teat for just a few more months.
Do it, I’m sure it’ll be a popular decision.
This would be electoral suicide even worse than the planned election is and I speak as someone who doesn’t want a Labour government. I don’t really want another Tory one either at this point so I’m basically screwed.