Rishi Sunak announces a 4 July general election in a statement outside Downing Street
After discussing the Covid pandemic, the furlough scheme, and the war in Ukraine, he says the question is "who do you trust?"
Sunak says he's proud of what his government has achieved, including on NHS spending and education
The PM revealed the date in a rain-soaked Downing Street speech, as Labour's 1997 election anthem Things Can Only Get Better blared from a nearby street
The Labour leader Keir Starmer says the election is the "moment the country's been waiting for"
And he says with "patience and determination" there is "so much pride and potential to unlock" in the UK
We are hearing that Rishi Sunak is to give a statement outside Downing Street and is expected to announce a summer general election date.
Stay with us as we bring you all the details - and you can watch live by pressing the Play button at the top of the page.
Let's take you back to PMQs this afternoon, when the SNP's Stephen Flynn asked the prime minister directly on whether he planned to call a general election.
"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 feart [scared]?" Flynn asked.
"There is, Mr Speaker - spoiler alert - there is going to be a general election in the second half of this year," Sunak said in response, in what has been his only public remarks today about setting the date.
As a reminder - the second half of the year starts on 1 July.
Sunak quizzed on general election date as rumours swirl
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
Image source, PA MediaMel Stride in Downing Street a short time ago
As Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, arrived here in Downing Street he said there was “too much rain”.
He’s not the first to make the observation in Westminster today.
If the prime minister wants to make a speech about brighter days ahead, grey drizzle is not necessarily the ideal backdrop.
Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight
A Tory rebel source tells the BBC that some letters calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak are being submitted.
The reported move came after one senior Conservative MP described the atmosphere in the tea room as “panic”.
(As a reminder, 15% of Conservative MPs must submit a letter before the party holds a leadership election - that would mean 52 letters are needed).
Rebel Tories were meeting in huddles after reports on BBC Newsnight last night and elsewhere that the prime minister may make an imminent announcement about a general election.
A leading Tory Brexiteer says an election now would be “madness”. Why go when the Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls, goes the thinking.
Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” another source tells me.
Many Tories appear to have been caught off-guard. They had thought the prime minister was thinking of holding an election in the autumn.
But it has became apparent that Sunak’s formulation - holding an election in the second half of the year - may be observed in the narrowest sense.
As a reminder, the second half of the year begins on 1 July.
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, has just arrived for the cabinet meeting having delayed a trip abroad in order to take part.
He did not respond to shouted enquiries about whether there is going to be a summer election.
That’s probably going to become a theme as more of his colleagues arrive
Ian Hamer
BBC Wales
Andrew Bowie, a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, was set to be speaking with the BBC Radio Wales Drive programme today about today’s Wylfa nuclear power announcement, but that interview was cancelled at 15:15 BST.
Chris Mason
Political editor
A further bit of intel – I am told that Home Office ministers' diaries are being cleared.
As we reported earlier, foreign secretary Lord Cameron has cut short a trip to Albania and is returning to the UK.
A Foreign Office source has told the BBC that Cameron was scheduled to be coming back this evening, but he is now travelling back early to attend a meeting in London. No other details were provided.
Here are some photos from that interrupted trip to Tirana, Albania, where preparations were made for his visit.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, ReutersChris Mason
Political editor
I am told senior civil servants who spend their days in regular conversation with Downing Street and the heart of government are encountering a wall of silence from those they normally deal with.
A senior Conservative figure who is standing down at the election just hugged one of my colleagues goodbye.
In other words, all of the building blocks of choreography and behaviour you would expect on the day a general election is called are taking shape.
It is worth saying that each and every one of them has an individually plausible alternative explanation.
But the sum total of all of them becomes very difficult to explain away if an election isn’t either imminent or the prime minister is about to say something about when it will happen.
The thing with Westminster is to check out a rumour you have to spread it, so a rumour becomes endemic in the tilt of a ear, the blink of an eye.
But they can be squashed in an instant.
And they are not being.
David Wallace Lockhart
Political correspondent
Senior Scottish Conservatives seem in the dark about a potential election, but are stressing they’re ready to go the minute it’s called.
I’ve been told they’d been working on the assumption that a May general election date was a possibility, so preparations have already been in place.
The Conservatives only have a handful of Scottish MPs, but some polls have looked a bit more encouraging for them holding their seats compared to colleagues elsewhere in the UK.
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
We are expecting cabinet ministers to arrive for a meeting at about 4 o’clock. Initially, this seemed innocuous - after all, Rishi Sunak was in Austria yesterday morning, when the cabinet usually meets.
In the context of today’s blazing election speculation – which Downing Street has conspicuously failed to douse – this cabinet meeting looks pretty different.
Many I’ve been speaking to expect, though crucially do not know, that the prime minister will use the meeting to inform his ministers that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election, most likely on 4 July.
Adding to the weight of expectation is the fact that cabinet ministers including Lord Cameron and Grant Shapps have rearranged foreign travel to be there. It’s not unheard of for cabinet ministers with overseas responsibilities to miss cabinet meetings, where necessary.
Image source, ReutersIf you're just joining our political coverage of the day, let's bring you up to date with everything we know so far:
Stick with us here as we continue to bring you the latest updates.
Some news just reaching us now.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was due to make an appearance on ITV's Peston programme at 21:00 tonight to discuss inflation figures and a possible general election.
In the last few moments Robert Peston, who hosts the political show, has posted on social media to say Jeremy Hunt is "no longer appearing" on the show.
As speculation mounts about a possible July general election, Labour is urging the PM to "get on with it" and call it this afternoon.
A Labour spokesman says the party is "fully ready to go whenever" and that the country is "crying out for a general election".
Sunak has "repeatedly marched us up this hill and then bottled it at the last minute", the spokesman adds.
But "however long he keeps delaying it he can not avoid the verdict of the British public, which... believes that it's time for a change," he says.
Daniel Wainwright
Data journalist
Image source, .As the general election rumours continue to swirl, the Conservative average in our opinion poll tracker is the lowest that we’ve seen since October 2022, just as Liz Truss was leaving Downing Street.
About 23% of voters in Great Britain would back the party were a general election held tomorrow, the polls suggest. That excludes those who are undecided or wouldn’t vote at all.
Labour has a 21 percentage point lead.
Things aren’t moving a lot in the polls but look a little further down the chart and the Greens are at about 7%, which is the highest we have seen them at since 2021.
Reform UK is polling at an average of 11% but has come down a bit from its peak in early April.
The latest averages are calculated from polls by 12 different companies in the two weeks up to 20 May.
You can explore how things have changed over the past year and since 2020 in our interactive poll tracker.
Image source, PA MediaA general election is drawing ever closer and there has been growing speculation about when the UK will go out to polling stations.
There are, however, some dates we do know for sure.
It is up to the prime minster to call the general election date and so far Rishi Sunak has repeated it is his "working assumption" that it take place in the second half of the year.
Boris Johnson won the last election on 12 December 2019, so this means the latest a Parliament can be dissolved for a general election is on the fifth anniversary of the day it first met, external.
For this current Parliament, that means 17 December 2024.
However, 25 working days are then allowed to prepare for the election.
So, the next election must be held by 28 January 2025.
Earlier today we also heard Chancellor Jeremy Hunt speaking on Radio 4 about how things in the UK have improved since he's been in the job.
He claims that when he took on the role in October 2022, “we had the Office for Budget Responsibility saying that we were going to have the biggest fall in living standards ever".
The OBR measures living standards , externalusing Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per person. It is measured in financial years, so the year to 5 April.
What Hunt failed to mention is that in the year he took over, 2022-23, the UK did indeed have the biggest fall in RHDI per person, since records began in the 1950s. It fell by 2.2%.
But to be fair to Hunt, while the OBR also predicted three years of falling RHDI, it actually grew 0.8% in 2023-24 and is forecast to continue growing, reaching its pre-pandemic level in 2025-26.
The OBR puts this down to things like falling inflation and the cuts to National Insurance.
Let's bring you some fresh comments from Downing Street where the prime minister's spokesperson has been asked about rumours of a summer general election.
The spokesperson says she doesn't rule anything in or out, but repeats Rishi Sunak's words that the general election will take place in the second half of the year.
She was then asked about a previous comment to keep Jeremy Hunt on as Chancellor until the general election, amid rumours that the prime minister could announce a reshuffle if he does not name the polling date.
"We don't comment on reshuffle speculation," the spokesperson replies.
"We think the chancellor's doing a very good job and it's very clear that the economy is on the up," she adds, saying "it's the PM's decision in terms of the cabinet positions".
Chris Mason
Political editor
Following on from that news of Lord Cameron, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is delaying an overseas trip he was due to embark on this afternoon, so he can make a cabinet meeting.
He does still intend to travel later today.
Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent
As we've been reporting, there are rumours - but only rumours - of a general election being called.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Cameron has cut short a trip to Albania and is returning to the UK.
A Foreign Office source told the BBC Cameron was due to be coming back this evening but was now travelling back early.
The reason given was that he had to attend a meeting in London, but no more details were given.
Lord Cameron had already met the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama but curtailed a later arrangement in Albania in order to catch his flight.