Thank you to the over one 150 of you who contacted me to express your support for an early general election. I share your view that an election should happen as soon as possible. After the upheavals we have seen, with three prime ministers and four chancellors so far this year, I think that the public deserve a proper say on the country’s future and the chance to choose a fresh start.

I know that many of our fellow citizens agree with you, for example a petition on the House of Commons website, calling for “an immediate general election so that the people can decide who should lead us through the unprecedented crises threatening the UK,” gained almost one million signatures.

The current procedure for calling an early election is set out under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. Under that Act, only the incumbent Prime Minister can ask the King to dissolve Parliament and call an early election. Tabling a vote of no confidence in the Government will not realistically lead to such an outcome at this stage. This is because the Government has a large majority and the current Prime Minister has insisted that he has no intention of seeking his own mandate until at least 2024. I strongly disagree with the Prime Minister’s decision not to call an election, but so long as he has the support of a majority of MPs, there is no way to get the outcome you seek.

Nor is there any guarantee that an election will happen even in 2024. A Parliament can sit for up to five years. As the current Parliament, elected on 12 December 2019, first met on 17 December 2019, it can therefore continue until 17 December 2024 with the latest possible date for a general election 25 working days after this, on 24 January 2025.

I recognise that this will disappoint you, I hope that the Government will listen to the view that you and hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens have made and give the country the say I think it deserves.