One of the top political analysts in Britain claimed on Friday that Rishi Sunak might schedule the general election for November 14.
Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University Sir John Curtice thinks the Prime Minister might ignite the election with his speech at the end of the Tory annual rally in Birmingham on October 2.
He made the forecast following Mr. Sunak’s decision to all but rule out a May election and put Britain on course for an October poll.
Sir John told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Now, there is beginning to be a consensus it might be November 14.
“All the parties have decided to hold their party conferences rather early next autumn.
“The Prime Minister will end the Conservative conference on October 2 that might be the starting gun.”
He also stressed that the PM appeared to have decided to bank two years in No10 rather than risk serving just 18 months by calling a May election.
On a visit to Nottinghamshire on Thursday, Mr Sunak said: “So my working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year and in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
In response, the Prime Minister was accused by Labour and the Liberal Democrats of “bottling” the demand for a general election.
Gordon Brown was the target of this accusation in 2007 when he chose not to go to the polls, allowing rumours to spread that he would call an early election.
Sir John also outlined a dismal future for the Conservatives, emphasising that they were still only at about 25% of the vote in the polls.
“That is where they have been constistently throughout the autumn despite their various attempts to try to seize the initiative,” he added.
“And indeed that is the level at which the party was at shortly after Rishi Sunak took over from Liz Truss.
“So, so far, I’m afraid the Prime Minister has not made any discernible progress in improving his party’s fortunes.”