It is six weeks since Rishi Sunak announced he was calling a General Election. This is how events unfolded.
– Stormy weather
Shortly after 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 22, Rishi Sunak, taking advantage of a brief break in the weather, stepped out of the front door of No 10 to address the nation.
The skies promptly opened as the old New Labour anthem of Things Can Only Get Better blared out from across Whitehall, all but drowning out the Prime Minister’s words as he embarked on the biggest gamble of his political career.
With the Conservatives 20 points behind in the opinion polls and most of Westminster braced for an autumn election, a rain-sodden Mr Sunak announced that the King had agreed to a dissolution of Parliament. Polling day would be on July 4 – in six weeks’ time.
“Over the next few weeks, I will fight for every vote. I will earn your trust,” he declared, before scurrying back into No 10.
– Sunak’s call to arms
Taking advantage of the element of political surprise, the Tories sought to seize the initiative with a series of striking policy pledges – starting with the return of mandatory national service (sort of) for all 18-year-olds.
It was the first in a string of commitments apparently aimed at shoring up support among traditionalist older voters tempted to turn to Reform UK, with promises to raise defence spending and a “triple lock” tax break for pensioners.
– Abbott fights back
As the campaign got under way, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer found himself embroiled in a row with the left of the party amid accusations he was mounting a “cull” of Corbynistas from its list of candidates.
Among the targets was veteran Diane Abbott – the UK’s first black woman MP – who had just had the Labour whip restored following suspension for comments she had made suggesting Irish, Jewish and Traveller people are not subject to racism in the same way black people were.
She reacted furiously to briefings suggesting the leadership still wanted to prevent her standing again – but after deputy leader Angela Rayner came out in her support, Sir Keir staged a hasty climbdown.
– Davey’s pratfalls
Meanwhile, Sir Ed Davey was setting the pattern for the Liberal Democrats’ campaign, repeatedly falling from a paddleboard while gurning manically for the cameras in an attempt to highlight his party’s policies for cleaning up Britain’s polluted waterways.
The Lib Dems argued that this daily diet of “embarrassing dad” photo opportunities – from waterslides to bungee jumps – was the only way they could compete with the larger parties for media attention.
– Farage’s flip flop
When Mr Sunak announced he was calling the election, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK founder and honorary president, said he would not be taking part, instead spending the summer in the US, campaigning for his friend Donald Trump.
A week later all that changed as he declared he would not only be taking back the party leadership, but he would be standing in Clacton, with the aim of making Reform the main party of opposition by the time of the next election.
“We think this election needs a bit of gingering up,” he said as he launched his eighth attempt to become an MP, sending shockwaves through the Tory high command, who feared a revitalised Reform would eat into their vote.
On a visit the following day to the down-at-heel Essex seaside constituency he had chosen, Mr Farage was met by one woman protester who promptly threw a McDonald’s banana milkshake over his suit.
– Sunak and Starmer go head to head
The first TV debate between the leaders of the two main parties, staged by ITV, was a tetchy affair dominated by Mr Sunak’s repeated claim that a Labour government would mean a £2,000 tax rise for every household in the country.
There was some surprise that it took Sir Keir so long to push back, as the Prime Minister claimed the numbers had come from “independent Treasury officials” who had costed Labour’s spending plans.
The following day, however, Labour triumphantly produced a letter from the top civil servant at the Treasury, making clear he had warned ministers that they should not say the £2,000 figure had come from his officials.
Sir Keir accused Mr Sunak of “lying”, in breach of his own ministerial code of conduct; however, the Tories appeared unbothered, seemingly content if viewers had been left with the message that a vote for Labour meant higher taxes.
– Sunak’s D-Day retreat
Election hostilities were largely suspended for two days for the 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day, marking the Normandy landings which changed the course of the Second World War.
Both Mr Sunak and Sir Keir travelled to northern France, along with the King and Queen and surviving British veterans, joining other world leaders including Presidents Joe Biden of the US, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
There was outrage when it then emerged that the Prime Minister was leaving early to record an election TV interview with ITV.
As it became clear the row was hurting the Tories at the polls, Mr Sunak issued a series of increasingly abject apologies, appealing for forgiveness and insisting he did not mean to cause upset or offence.
– Conspiracy of silence
The third full week of campaigning saw the two main parties launch their election manifestos, with Mr Sunak unveiling his blueprint for power at Silverstone race track and Sir Keir releasing Labour’s document two days later.
Both parties pledged not to put up the main rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT, and both parties claimed their plans were fully costed.
Those claims were however dismissed by the number-crunchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who accused them of engaging in a “conspiracy of silence” over the scale of the challenges facing the public finances.
– Shapps hits the panic button
With polls showing no signs of narrowing, and predictions the Tories could be on course for an electoral wipe-out of historic proportions, the alarm bells were ringing in Conservative Campaign HQ.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was sent out to warn that a vote for anyone other than the Conservatives could lead to a Labour “supermajority” which would be “very bad news” for the country.
The message, clearly aimed at wavering supporters considering switching to Reform, set the tone for the rest of the Tory campaign.
– I didn’t have Sky TV
ITV finally broadcast Mr Sunak’s D-Day interview which had caused him so much grief, and the result was more pain for the Prime Minister.
He was subjected to widespread ridicule when, pressed if there had ever been things he had had to go without as a child, he replied: “Famously, Sky TV, so that was something we never had growing up actually.”
– Gamblegate
As the campaign entered its closing stages, the last thing the Tories needed was another scandal – but that is exactly what they got.
It began with the disclosure that Mr Sunak’s former parliamentary aide, Craig Williams, was being investigated by the Gambling Commission over a £100 bet he reportedly placed on the date of the election just days before Mr Sunak made his big announcement.
From there it snowballed, with another Tory candidate, Laura Saunders, two senior party officials (including Ms Saunders’ husband), and a Conservative Senedd member implicated in the inquiry, with reports that more could be involved.
A member of Mr Sunak’s police close protection team was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, while six other officers have also been placed under investigation.
Scotland Yard said detectives were looking into a small number of cases where more serious criminality was suspected.
Under pressure from the opposition parties, Mr Sunak withdrew Tory support from Mr Williams and Ms Saunders, but insisted he could not comment further while investigations were continuing.
Senior Conservatives were appalled, with Michael Gove comparing it to the infamous “partygate” scandal, saying: “It looks like one rule for them and one rule for us.”
Sir Keir, meanwhile, sought to make a virtue of his swift response, suspending Labour candidate Kevin Craig when it emerged that he had placed a bet on himself to lose.
– Farage’s ‘bad apples’
Reform was dogged throughout the campaign by disclosures about the offensive views of some of its candidates, with a number being dropped amid allegations of racism, misogyny, homophobia and links to the far right.
Even Mr Farage appeared unsurprised at some of the claims, blaming a vetting company the party had employed for failing to root out what he described as the “bad apples” before the close of nominations.
Two candidates quit the party in disgust at the “bigoted” views of some of their fellow parliamentary hopefuls, while Mr Farage himself sparked controversy with his claim that the West had provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
With a week to go to polling, Channel 4 News screened undercover footage apparently showing Reform activists in Clacton making homophobic and racist comments, including an offensive slur on Mr Sunak’s Indian heritage.
Mr Farage claimed a “stitch-up”, but a visibly angry Prime Minister said: “To know my girls may have heard their dad be called a ‘f****** P***’ by someone campaigning for Reform is shocking. We are better than that as a country.”
– Johnson enters the fray
With less than 36 hours before the polls opened, Boris Johnson finally made his long-mooted appearance on the campaign trail.
The former prime minister turned up at a Tory rally in central London to warn that a Labour landslide was “pregnant with horrors” and denounce Mr Farage as “Kremlin crawler”.
There was, however, no joint appearance with Mr Sunak, who many of Mr Johnson’s diehard supporters still blame for their man’s ejection from No 10.
