TUC to hold mass rally in Westminster demanding a general election now

RMT general secretary will also lead calls for a public vote at the rally

Rishi Sunak is facing growing calls for a general election (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The Trades Union Congress will hold a mass rally in Westminster to demand a general election after Rishi Sunak became the third Conservative prime minister this year.

The rally will be held on 2 November in front of the Palace of Westminster led by TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady while RMT general secretary Mick Lynch will also join the call for a general election now.

A poll for The Independent has found almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of voters – including nearly two in five (38 per cent) of those who backed the Tories in 2019 – say the new PM should get his own mandate by calling an election now.

It came as the number of signatures on The Independent’s petition for an election now passed 430,000.

Hundreds of union members from all over the country are expected to be at the rally as the public demand a vote to decide who will lead the country through Covid recovery, the cost of living crisis and the recent economic instability skyrocketing mortgage prices and negatively impacting government bonds.

Britain’s latest prime minister – the third in ten weeks – made clear he will not seek approval for his agenda, citing the 2019 general election won by the Conservatives under Boris Johnson.

“The mandate my party earned in 2019 is not the sole property of any one individual,” said Mr Sunak after returning from Buckingham Palace. “It is a mandate that belongs to and unites all of us.”

He promised an administration that would fix the “mistakes” of his predecessor Liz Truss and offer “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. But his continuing dependence on the support of the Tory right was evident as he reappointed Suella Braverman as home secretary days after she was sacked for breaking security rules.

Despite this however, Tory MPs have also joined calls for an election saying it was now “morally unavoidable.” Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith and other Tory MPs called for the public to select the next prime minister.

Supporters of Boris Johnson, including Nadine Dorries, warned the party will be “ungovernable” under Liz Truss’s successor Rishi Sunak.

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Mr Goldsmith, the minister of state for Asia, energy, climate and environment, said it was inconceivable to have a third new prime minister and policy “miles away from the original manifesto” without a general election.

“Conservative MPs understandably won’t want to and are legally not obliged to, but it will be morally unavoidable,” he wrote on Twitter.

Sir Christopher Chope, another Johnson backer, said on Monday morning the Tory party was “ungovernable” and a general election is “the only answer”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that Mr Sunak had only fought one election campaign to be prime minister, in which he was “thrashed” by Ms Truss.

“No wonder he doesn’t want to fight a general election,” Sir Keir told his shadow cabinet.

And Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Rishi Sunak’s refusal to call a general election shows the Conservative Party does not trust the British people.”