Rishi Sunak urged to call snap election after three MPs quit in just 24 hours

Rishi Sunak has been urged to call a snap general election after three quick-fire MP resignations left the Prime Minister facing by-election battles on multiple fronts.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Sunak “must finally find a backbone” and send the country to the polls after the Prime Minister found himself three MPs down in the space of 24 hours. The call was echoed by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey as rival parties hope to inflict more damaging by-election defeats on the Tories.

Nigel Adams on Saturday (10 June) became the latest to announce he would be quitting as an MP with “immediate effect”. An ally of Boris Johnson, he followed the former prime minister and former culture secretary Nadine Dorries in departing the green benches.

Adams and Dorries had been tipped for peerages in Johnson’s resignation honours but neither featured in the published list.

When will the next general election take place?

If Rishi Sunak resists the calls for a snap election from Starmer and Davey, it could be another year before the country heads to the polls. General elections are usually held every five years.

However both of the most recent elections were snap ones - in 2017 and 2019 - and were called by Conservative leaders who had taken over leadership mid-term (in Theresa May and Boris Johnson).

Currently, the next general election is scheduled to take place in 2024 - but a date has not been confirmed and will not be untll much closer to the time. In the UK, general elections are traditionally held on a Thursday, normally the last Thursday in May - although a winter election was held in 2019.