LIVE: UK general election 2024 as Rishi Sunak announces July polling day

Rishi Sunak has announced the next general election will take place on July 4.

Rumours about the election had circulated around Westminster on Wednesday morning. They gathered pace after Mr Sunak hailed a 'major milestone' with inflation tumbling to the lowest level in nearly three years.

Mr Sunak made his announcement just after 5pm from Downing Street in the soaking rain. Mr Sunak said: “The question now is how and who do you trust to turn that foundation into a secure future for you, your family and our country.”

He added: “On July 5, either Sir Keir Starmer or I will be prime minister. He has shown time and time again that he will take the easy way out and do anything to get power.

“If he was happy to abandon all the promises he made to become Labour leader once he got the job, how can you know that he won’t do exactly the same thing if he were to become prime minister?

“If you don’t have the conviction, to stick to anything you say, if you don’t have the courage to tell people what you want to do and if you don’t have a plan, how can you possibly be trusted to lead our country, especially at this most uncertain of times?”

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Holly Lynch, Labour MP for Halifax, has announced she will stand down at this summer’s General Election.

In a letter posted on social media, she wrote: “Today’s announcement has come much sooner in the year than I had anticipated, and whilst I have the most amazing husband and family, as the mother of a young son with another on the way, I have found balancing the requirements of this very special job, with those responsibilities, increasingly difficult.

“It is right that the