Why Rishi Sunak really went for snap general election

Campaigning is underway after Rishi Sunak’s shock decision to call a snap general election - and the decision by Nigel Farage not to stand as a candidate for his Reform UK party might play to his favour - yet many are still puzzled by his decision.

The Conservatives are twenty points behind in the polls and even the prime minister recently admitted he’s unlikely to win. So why go now? And why in the rain? Does he have something up his sleeve? He says Labour don't have a plan. Do they? What are the issues, and who are the people that will decide this election?

To talk about all this and more on The Political Fourcast we’re joined by Conservative MP and former Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison, Labour’s former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and pollster Luke Tryl.

Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Shaheen Sattar, Rob Thompson and Nick Jackson.

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[onenote]

'Stupid for who?' would be my question. A lot of Tory MPs are going to be fuming, but a lot of Tory MPs were planning to stick a knife in Sunak's back. He gets to leave as a Prime Minister and not a pincushion. It's not like there is any loyalty left within the Tory party, if there ever was any.

[Coomberg]

California school year starts in Aug/Sept and needs the family settled by then.

[olrdplt]

It's not the first stupid decision that Tories have made in the last 14 years by far but hopefully it will be one of their last decisions they make in government, stupid or otherwise for a very, very long time.

[Vincegpz]

How nice to hear two politicians not just parroting and more reasonably responding to questions. Is it because they're leaving and not worried about what the whips say?

[Manu-Official]

Rishi ''The Plan☂'' Sunak jumped before he got pushed with letters of no confidence.

[dwood]

Come on. This is not that complicated. He knows he’s going to lose and his bags are already packed to move permanently to Santa Monica, California. He can get his kids enrolled in school prior to the start of the 2024-25 school year in the fall. Slow curtain. The End.

[ponypong]

A tory making a stupid decision... who would have thought it?

[SpectacularDisaster]

Tory MPs spent a year threatening to topple Sunik are surprised that he just called an election.

[LeoMumford]

Honestly he got in, made billions, and then left... that was, unfortunately, his plan all along and it seems actually pretty clever.

[ldm]

Davison is an ultra brexiteer who wanted to give Farage a peerage and to lower UK food standards to get a post brexit trade deal with the US, to the detriment of consumers and farmers. Now she is disappearing without a word of apology because she finds politics just too hard. An appalling demonstration of self regard that the hard right is steeped in

[jirom]

When you actually leveled up nothing I’m not sure that being the former leveling up minister is something to brag about.

[FranzBieberkopf]

The polling guy was interesting when he spoke about Starmer's appeal to stabilise things and make the chaos go away.
I think a large part of Sunak's appeal originally was that he was a boring technocrat, the antidote to the lunacy of BloJo and the imbecility of The Lettuce.
No-one factored in the sheer incompetence of Sunak, and the fratricidal chaos of the Conservative backbenchers.
Starmer's calmness does have an appeal.

[sdikrtd]

Sunak cant figure out its raining by looking out of the window.

[EarthCitizen]

From across The Pond, I saw a PM whose staff can't find an umbrella- in England on a rainy day- and a PM who doesn't know to get out of the rain. Talk about out of touch! 🤣

[whitelines]

I think Sunak knows that nobody can be sent to Rwanda in July

[ET]

Total nonsense to say by the woman that Richi has got in this role because he genuinely wanted to make things better. Absolutely not - pure ego. Nothing else - as he has got no connection with real life and how people actually live. What a joke this woman is really

[jimk]

😂Obviously they will be angry. They take (around) £10.000 a month. Loosing £50.000 (if the election was to take place when supposed to be) Will make anybody been pissed off.

[FontaineDerby]

It was the last day that Rishi Sunk could announce an election before the Summer Recess.

[ProffyChaos]

All the Tories standing down at this election were simply trying to avoid a Portillo moment.

[ConradAinger]

Sunak knows what is going to happen on the international scene this summer. He intends to be elsewhere...