Rishi Sunak’s general election dilemma is not getting any easier

Editorial: With a defection, plotting by rebel Conservative MPs and the threat of significant losses in local elections, the pressure is on the prime minister over the timing of sending Britain to the polls

Rishi Sunak has declined to rule out a July poll (PA)

Speculation about a snap general election has been swirling around Westminster for days. In an interview with Sky News, aired on Sunday, the prime minister refused to rule out a summer election but refused to rule one in either. The betting remains on the autumn, but the variables are many.

Once speculation about the timing of a general election has taken off, there is a sense in which any prime minister is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Gordon Brown paid the price for being judged to have “bottled it” in the autumn of 2007 after what was seen as a generally successful first few months in power. It was a fateful decision that weighed on his time in Downing Street and probably contributed to his defeat three years later.

Theresa May arguably drew the lesson from that, calling a snap election as she approached her first year in office, only to lose the small, but serviceable, majority that she had inherited. The protracted parliamentary tussle over implementing Brexit was a consequence, and ultimately cost her her job.