Mid-november is likely date for election, suggests Gove

THE next general election is likely to take place on Nov 14 or 21, Michael Gove has predicted.

Mr Gove insisted he had “no inside knowledge” about the date of the forthcoming national poll but his comments will add to a consensus that it will be held in the autumn.

The Levelling Up Secretary made the remarks in an interview on Political Currency, a weekly current affairs podcast hosted by George Osborne, the former chancellor, and Ed Balls, who was his Labour counterpart.

When asked when he believed the election would take place, Mr Gove said: “I think November the 14th or the 21st… I have no inside knowledge at all.”

When challenged by Mr Balls on the fact that he had been to see the Prime Minister that day, Mr Gove replied: “We did not discuss the election, we were discussing policy.

“If he had told me, I couldn’t tell you. Therefore, the fact that I’ve told you what I think is proof that I didn’t know.”

Mr Osborne, a close ally of Mr Sunak’s who has previously provided advice to the Prime Minister, has previously predicted the next election will be held on Nov 14. He told podcast listeners to “save the date” and claimed to have been informed by a “little birdie” in Downing Street that “various work programmes” were based on the assumption of a mid-november poll.

Sir John Curtice, Britain’s foremost polling guru and a professor of politics at Strathclyde University, also suggested Nov 14, claiming Oct 2 – set to be the last day of the Conservative Party Conference – could see Mr Sunak fire the “starting gun” on the contest.

Rumours in Westminster about the general election being held on May 2, the same day as the local elections, grew to the point that the Prime Minister was forced to rule out the date, in the clearest sign yet that a ballot will not be held this spring.

A general election must be held by January 2025. Mr Sunak has previously described an election in the “second half ” of this year as his “working assumption”.

Tory insiders have long suggested that autumn is the most likely option in the wake of falling inflation and the possibility of an interest rate cut, as well as giving voters time to feel the benefit of tax cuts unveiled in last month’s Budget.