Downing street today, rishi sunak made the surprise announcement and urged the nafion announcement and urged the nation to stick with him over sir keir starmer addressing tory Party Supporters and his cabinet at Londons Excel Centre a short while ago, he took aim at the labour leader on the 5th of july. Either keir starmer or i will be Prime Minister and 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 that he made to become labour leader once he got the job, how can you know that he wouldnt do exactly the same thing if he were to become Prime Minister . We conservatives have got a clear plan with bold action to secure our future board. So lets take that message and that vision of a secure future to every corner of our United Kingdom. And lets show labour that the british people will never be taken for granted. Granted. Meanwhile, the labour leader, keir starmer, responded to the announcement, saying the election is the moment the country has been waiting for night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election , a moment the general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for, and liberal democrats leader sir ed davey vowed to remove the tories from power across the country. People are crying out for change and this election is the chance to make that happen in so many parts of the country, its the liberal democrats who can beat the conservatives, who have taken people for granted. Taken people for granted. And in other news, uk inflation has fallen to the lowest level in nearly three years. In april, lowest level in nearly three years. In april , driven by lower years. In april, driven by lower gas and electricity prices. The latest figures show. Inflation dropped to 2. 3 last month. One person, one person has died in a mudslide on the edge of the nonh mudslide on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors as rain continues to batter the uk. It continues to batter the uk. It happened at carlton in cleveland at around 130 this afternoon in nonh at around 130 this afternoon in North Yorkshire. Police have asked the public to avoid the area and former subpostmaster alan bates has said he has no sympathy for Paula Vennells after she broke down twice dunng after she broke down twice during her first day of evidence to the horizon. It inquiry. During her first day of evidence to the horizon. It inquiry. The to the horizon. It inquiry. The former post office boss at the centre of the scandal admitted making mistakes during her time in charge, but she insists she didnt know about the horizon system when she joined and that no one had told her of any bugs. Shes also denied any conspiracy to cover up the scandal. And for to cover up the scandal. And for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news common alerts. Now its back to. Patrick. Back to. Patrick. Good evening folks. Its wednesday the 22nd of may and its happening. Its started with twitter rumours. Theres a lack of denial from number 10 and usually reliable government sources going underground sent westminster into a frenzy. Then David Cameron failed to attend a meeting with the albanians, a massive blow for the albanian government, who had rolled out a welcome mat, including a giant poster of him on a building in their capital. Then sunak was asked about it at pmqs. Mr speaker , speculation is mr speaker, speculation is rife so i think the public deserve a clear answer to a simple question does the Prime Minister intend to call a summer general election , or is he faked general election, or is he faked a mid beds . Mr speaker . As i have said mr speaker . As i have said repeatedly to him. There is. Repeatedly to him. There is. There is the speaker. There is the speaker. Spoiler alert there is going to be a general election in the second half of this year. Then for about 20 minutes, it all became about jeremy hunt quitting. They say that hell lose his seat anyway. He hasnt got any money for tax cuts. So hes off. And we were about to get a cabinet reshuffle. And then it swung back round to being all about a general election again. There was an emergency Cabinet Meeting at 4 15 pm. Last week. Rishi sunak said book your summer holidays, were going for autumn holiday , were going for autumn holiday, so you need to let me know. Family to come back and tell us when the election is. Delighted to have you with us then. Delighted to have you with us then. November, thank you very then. November, thank you very much for your holiday. Thank you for sir. Thank you. Thank you for sir. Thank you. Book your holidays , he said. Book your holidays, he said. But as the afternoon progressed, one date emerged. July the 4th, and it was all eyes on downing street. And then there we go. And then all eyes on the downing street door after that wasnt it . And out strides rishi sunak into the pouring rain to remind us all immediately about the time this government locked us down and smashed our economy to pieces. I introduced the furlough scheme. I did so not because scheme. I did so not because i saw a country simply in need of desperate help, albeit we were, but because i saw a country whose future hung in the balance. I have never and will never leave the people of this country to face the darkest of days alone and you know that because youve seen it as i did, then i will forever do everything in my power to provide you with the strongest possible protection. Can. No one in downing street thought to provide mr sunak with an umbrella as he got soaked to the bone. Then the music started and his message to the nation was drowned out. Prices will ease and Mortgage Rates will come down. This is proof that the plan and priorities i set out are working. I recognise that it has not always been easy. Things can only get wetter. A rishi finally , the prime rishi finally, the Prime Minister got to the important bit earlier today i spoke with his majesty the king to request the dissolution of parliament. The king has granted this request. Request. But there was a stark comparison between sukh sunak and slick starmer, who looked more prepared and Prime Ministerial than the Prime Minister night. The Prime Minister has finally announced the next general election, a moment the country needs and has been waiting for. So here we go. Prime minister so here we go. Prime minister rishi sunak has gone for it. The general election will be on july the 4th and we go now to downing street with our political edhon street with our Political Editor, Christopher Hope. Christopher, hows rishi played . A blinder or has he got this all wrong . Wrong . Well, time will tell , wont well, time will tell, wont it, patrick . And good evening from downing street, where jeremy hunt has just arrived back from this fundraiser. The pm has been in charge of over in east london. The election starts today. It has caught virtually everybody , apart from a few everybody, apart from a few people around the Prime Minister, completely unawares. I minister, completely unawares. I was talking with a member of the whips office earlier tonight. They told their flock there two dozen mps or so. There will be an election in november. I have been told for ages it will be in november because thats when it makes sense, because by then you may have had some cuts in interest rates, maybe two of those from the mpc, the Monetary Policy committee. By then, inflation is down to well under or around 2. Net migration falls. Patrick. Illegal migration may start to tick down. Even you might have tax cuts announced by the chancellor in a fiscal moment in september. All those levers the pm has chosen not to pull. Instead he has gone from an election that no one was expecting in the pouring rain. Expecting in the pouring rain. And the campaigning starts tomorrow. Tory mps are cross. At least one letter has gone in, or a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister. Tonight they tell me there is a chance they can depose the Prime Minister as leader of the party before next thursday, when parliament is dissolved. I think the jury is out on that. I think the chance of that happening is slim, very slim. But that gives you an indication of the fury of a lot of tory mps tonight. The ones speaking to me just dont understand why he has gone for an election now when he didnt have to. Why not wait six months and see if all those things that might happen have happened, and then further doubts emerge about sir keir starmer instead, the pm has gone for an election that no one expected. Yeah. Look, christopher, thank you very, very much for keeping us bang up to date all day. There. Just one more. Oh, thats all right. Lets get the thoughts from our panel this evening. Weve got the director of the popular conservatives, mark littlewood. Businessman and activist adam brooks, and author and journalist rebecca reid. Mark i will start with you on this. What a calamitous way to announce a general election in the driving rain with steve bray and his massive megaphone shouting at you. Yeah , he sort of came across yeah, he sort of came across as the little kid in the playground who said, come on then, ill take you all on. Youve got to kind of you know, its quite courageous in a way, whether its completely wise. Whether its completely wise. Im unsure of. Chris went through some of the reasons that he might have waited until november, or possibly even later, but im not sure much would have changed. The one thing that chris didnt point out is oftentimes when a government is in trouble and thinking about whether to go early or late, its some of it is whats going to happen to the economy. What do we thinks economy. What do we thinks going to happen to inflation . But some of its just crossing your fingers and hoping for a black swan event. You know that something will come out of thin air that changes the polls. Hes decided thats not very likely. So its game on. Its ive never known a government that is 15 or 20 behind in the opinion polls to trigger an early election. Its without precedent. Well, youve mentioned the opinion polls, and weve got a few of them that we can actually show you very shortly here now. So the latest opinion polls for rishi sunak are actually pretty dire. Actually he is if we have a look at this voting intention. A look at this voting intention. Labour 43, the conservatives 26, the lib dems on ten there, reform on nine and the greens on five and the snp on three. So thatis five and the snp on three. So that is the latest polling data from savanta and adam. Ill throw it over to you. Now, do you think that rishi sunak can do anything between now and the 4th of july to change what were seeing on our screens there . No, i think they will narrow slightly, i think the polls are always sort of wrong in some way, but no, theyre finished. Way, but no, theyre finished. And, you know, it was maybe two years ago when i was on, on this channel saying , if you get rid channel saying, if you get rid of boris, theres going to be severe trouble for the conservative party. I always say, better the devil you know, they got rid of the uks only superstar, politician. Someone that could walk down any street. His haters would go up and get a picture with him. You know, we havent got many of those in this country. Havent got many of those in this country. Boris was that man. Rishi is a disaster, right, hes hes, you know, theyre going to get annihilated and rebecca, there was an issue, a massive issue. I think with the professionalism of both of those announcements, given that rishi sunak was the one who was deciding when to call the election and to how do it, his team is crack team of advisers. Team is crack team of advisers. Yes, that was crack, decided that they were going to have him outside in the pouring rain with steve bray with a megaphone, next to him as well, playing a load of music. In fact, i can show what went on here with that ring blaring a load of music is kind of an international annoyance. This guy here, he is. Are you proud guy here, he is. Are you proud of yourselves . Fascist. This is not law. Fascist. This is not law. Fascist. This is not law. This is not law. This is not law. A law was broken law. A law was broken specifically to do this to this man. There is a long established constitution rule against particular law , long established particular law, long established this country has fallen to fascism. So youve got a guy in the shape of rishi sunak whos getting drizzled on. Youve got all that going on on downing street. They couldnt organise an umbrella, they couldnt stop the protesters shouting as well. Weve got a little side by side for you of this now and ill put this to you. Rebecca rishi sunak , theyre absolutely soaking wet on downing street. Keir starmer on downing street. Keir starmer inside, you know he cant see them in this video. Inside, you know he cant see them in this video. A couple of them in this video. A couple of union jacks next to him. Nice and dry. Difference in professionalism. So i have a semi Conspiracy Theory about this. And i think its that if you have ever watched a film where theres like a sports match, if you want people to side for one team, you start them as the loser and then you see them come back up. And i my theory is i dont think they can be stupid enough to send him out without an umbrella. So all i can imagine is that they want him to have had the worst possible start, so that then in the six weeks which were going to have, we have a very short attention span. The news cycle flips around a lot. In theory, maybe this is done so that he can actually only get better, literally. Like the music was saying, no, they are that stupid and ive said it. Ive said it numerous times. The people that are advising our mps, some of them are extremely stupid and theyve let the mps down. Yeah, but youre pretty sure it was cock up, not conspiracy because again, what does that say . Mark . Im sorry, but seriously, what does that say . He can pick and choose when the next election is. Hes already up against it. Weve just shown you the polls there and hes got the ability to make that decision. He caught everyone by surprise. David cameron was surprise. David cameron was dragged back. He didnt quite make it to baby reindeer. But you know, hes dragged back from there. Theres all this speculation going and hes on the steps of downing street and hes in there ruining a nice suit. Yeah, he can probably afford a new suit, im guessing, but no, youre right. I mean, what one might say in his defence is i suspect that the number of people who knew this for certain at lunchtime today numbered about 3 or 4, so usually for an announcement of this significance, youd have a Communications Team planning it out weeks in advance, working out weeks in advance, working out who was going to be standing to the left of him, to the right of him, and all of the rest of it . This was its not really a snap election, is it . The governments been in office for four and a half years, but it was a snap decision to do it, and it came a little bit unstuck through the optics. Maybe there was an element of him looking for pathos there, that he was a very sort of humble way to announce it. Maybe hes trying to engender sympathy, but the rhine was clearly could not have been organised by him. They could. They could have said, you know what, actually, lets not do it like that or lets not do it like that or lets give him an umbrella. Did he know that there was a coup to dethrone him in the next few days . Has he been panicked into this decision . You know, was there, was there a move to install another leader of the conservative party that is probably more likely for me . Or why would he do this . Why . Why would he do this . Why . Its well held that he might want to move to america and american schools start in august, and he might want his kids in situ to start school in august. That would be a very cynical, very cynical reason to dissolve parliament. If i knew i was going to leave, id be like, well, well, lets have a look. Lets have a little look at some of the things. The state of play some of the things. The state of play when it comes to the timing of rishi sunaks election. Okay so weve had inflation now is at its lowest for nearly three years. Is the visa dependent apps are down okay. So that has happened. Apps are down okay. So that has happened. Were expecting the happened. Were expecting the net migration figures to be lower tomorrow, mainly because they couldnt really get any higher. Otherwise wed all have a newcomer all around us, everywhere we see, everywhere we go. So theyre going to go down as well. Flies to rwanda. He thinks well take off in the first week of july. That could coincide with this election if he plays his cards right on that. The European Union or a variety of different Member States have now come out and said they are going to copy the rwanda plan. Meanwhile, this week, labour have basically said theyre going to make it easier to change gender, which means essentially more blokes in womens changing rooms. And also they, and im paraphrasing here, would quite like to make an enemy of israel by the looks of things. Good timing. Well, you could say good timing. Heres my conspiracy thoughts for what theyre worth. Thoughts for what theyre worth. Firstly, i suspect you might be right that rwanda plan might get a plane or two off the ground. Its possible, but i think he might have reached the conclusion its not going to have any discernible impact between now and november, so you might as well just get the opfics might as well just get the optics if there are going to be any now. But hes not anticipating that the small boats wont be coming over the channel over the summer, which would be bad optics for him. Second consideration may have been, reform. The uk have not been, reform. The uk have not yet got their act together. Theyve been promising for as long as anyone will listen that theyre going to field 650 candidates. I think theyve only got a few dozen in place. Well got a few dozen in place. Well hear from nigel farage, i think tomorrow, whether hes going to run or not. But its going to be quite difficult for reform to ac