When is the UK next general election and who can vote?

By Jennifer Clarke

BBC News

After widespread speculation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the next general election will take place on 4 July.

Mr Sunak’s announcement ended months of speculation about when the UK would go to the polls.

The PM said that earlier on Wednesday he had formally asked the King to “dissolve” Parliament – the official term for closing it ahead of an election.

This will happen on Thursday 30 May.

At the point of dissolution, MPs lose their status, and have to campaign for re-election if they wish to carry on.

Image source, Getty Images

Government also enters a pre-election period – previously known as “purdah” – which restricts ministerial and departmental activity during the campaign.

More than 100 MPs have said they will stand down at the next election.

The UK is divided into 650 areas, called constituencies. Each of these elects an MP to represent local residents in the House of Commons.

On election day, registered voters in each constituency vote for their preferred candidate in their local polling station. Some people vote by post in advance.

Most candidates represent a political party, but some stand as independents.

In a general election, each person has one vote. Under the “first past the post” system, the candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for that area.

The election will be fought on new constituency boundaries, redrawn to reflect population changes and to try to even out voter numbers in each area.

Use our tool to find out which constituency you are in and an estimate of what the result would have been had these new boundaries been in place at the last general election, in 2019.

After the votes have been counted, the King asks the leader of the party with the most MPs to become prime minister and to form a government.

The leader of the party with the second highest number of MPs becomes the leader of the opposition.

If no party ends up with a majority of MPs – meaning it cannot pass legislation with just its own MPs – the result is a hung parliament.

At this point, the largest party might decide to form a coalition government with another party or operate as a minority government, relying on votes from other parties to pass any laws.

Anyone on the electoral register aged 18 or over on polling day can vote in the general election as long as they are a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a Republic of Ireland citizen with a UK address.

All UK citizens who live abroad can register to vote in the constituency where they were previously on the electoral roll as long as they are not legally excluded from voting.

You can register to vote at any time if you are 16 or over – or 14 or over in Scotland.

Yes. Since May 2023, voters have to show a valid form of photo ID at polling stations to vote in person at a general election.

There are 22 acceptable forms of ID, external, including:

• passports

• driving licences

• Older or Disabled Person’s bus passes

• Oyster 60+ cards

You can use out-of-date photo ID as long as you look the same.

Alternatively, anyone registered to vote without the correct ID – or who no longer looks like their photo – can apply for a free document called a Voter Authority Certificate, external.

Voters in Northern Ireland can use the Electoral Identity Card, external.

No ID is needed to vote by post.

The latest a Parliament can be dissolved for a general election is on the fifth anniversary of the day it first met.

For the current Parliament, that date is 17 December 2024.

However, 25 working days are then allowed to prepare for the election.

So the next election had to be held by 28 January 2025.

The prime minister can call the election at a time of their choosing, within the five-year period.

Mr Sunak became prime minister on 25 October 2022 when he succeeded Liz Truss, who took over from Boris Johnson.

Related Topics