After hours of speculation this afternoon, the Prime Minister has announced a General Election for Thursday 4th July; a surprise move (despite months of speculation) and the first July election since 1945. Parliament will continue until Friday, at which point all activity will be suspended, before being fully dissolved on Thursday 30th May. At this point, all MPs will vacate their seats and the election campaign will begin. The remaining days of Parliament is called the "wash up", and is used by the Government to rush as much of its remaining legislation where possible. It often sees the Government willing to rip large parts out of Bills in order for the other parties to agree to pass other parts quickly, and ensure that some of the Bill makes it into law.
During the campaign itself, although there are no longer any MPs technically, Ministers remain in-post, but only to carry out essential functions to keep the wheels of Government moving. No major announcements or policy decisions are made.
We will provide further updates as events develop over the coming days. The team will be awaiting the manifesto publications in advance of the campaigns and will be delving into the relevance for Comms Council UK. We will also look to develop a post-election engagement plan and reach out to civil servants to see which of our current initiatives (e.g the Telecoms Sector Charter) will be paused until post-election.