E-petition debate: Call a general election
There will be a Westminster Hall debate on 6 January 2025 on an e-petition calling for a new general election. The debate will be opened by Jamie Stone MP. The Petitions Committee agreed to the debate in response to e-petition 700143 that attracted over 2.9 million signatures.
E-petition 700143 calls for a general election to be called. The petition’s author says: “I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.”
The petition is open until 20 May 2025 and had received almost 3 million signatures by December 2024.
The government response was published on the e-petition page on 6 December 2024. It rejected calls for a general election and said the government would “continue to deliver the manifesto of change that it was elected on.” The response also explained how a general election is called.
Full Fact, a registered charity and independent fact checking organisation, has produced a Government Tracker. It monitors progress on the government’s manifesto and other key pledges.
When is the next general election?A general election is triggered by the dissolution of parliament. Dissolution is the official term for the end of a Parliament. At dissolution all the business in both Houses comes to an end and all MPs vacate their seats in the House of Commons. A general election would then be the 25th working day after dissolution.
Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 the maximum length of a parliament is five years. Section 4 of the act says:
“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.”
A parliament may be dissolved earlier at the time of the Prime Minister’s choosing. To do this the Prime Minister must make a request to the King to dissolve Parliament. By convention, if the Prime Minister makes such a request the King will grant it using prerogative powers.
The last possible day for the next general election is 15 August 2029.
The current parliament met first on 9 July 2024 to elect a Speaker. The fifth anniversary is therefore 9 July 2029. The 25th working day after the 9 July is Wednesday 15 August 2029.
There are two bank holidays in that period, one in Northern Ireland and one in Scotland. A bank holiday in any part of the UK is disregarded in the timetable across the whole of the UK. This is to prevent polling day being on different days in different parts of the country.
Polling day is Thursday by convention. Dissolution of parliament is usually timed so that polling day falls on a Thursday 25 working days later.
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