Downing Street Says » General Election to take place on 6 May

General Election to take place on 6 May

General Election announced, Crown copyright

The Prime Minister has called a General Election to be held on Thursday 6 May.

Parliament will be dissolved on Monday 12 April.

The new Parliament will be summoned to meet on Tuesday 18 May, when the first business will be the election of the Speaker and the swearing-in of members. The State Opening will be the week after.

Background information

The timing of a General Election is at the discretion of the Prime Minister.

The PM asks the Queen to dissolve Parliament by Royal Proclamation. The election is then usually held 17 working days after the date of the Proclamation.

Since 1935 every General Election has been held on a Thursday.

The date of Parliament s return reflects the wishes of the Speaker and the new arrangements proposed by the cross-party House of Commons Modernisation Committee in their June 2007 report “Revitalising the Chamber”. The Government accepted this recommendation.

The publication of content on this website and others across government, including channels such as twitter, YouTube and flickr, will be restricted during the campaign period in line with the Civil Service Code.

You can read more about the process of a General Election in a special section on the Parliament website.

Information on the running of elections and the value of voting is published by the Electoral Commission and its sister site About My Vote.

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