Prime Minister announces summer election

LOCAL politicians may be frantically changing their holiday plans after Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced this evening that the date of the UK general election will be July 4.

After a day of mounting speculation, the Prime Minister said that he believed the time was right for the country to decide the next Government.

Standing in the rain outside 10 Downing Street, Mr Sunak began by saying the last five years had seen the country fight through the ‘most challenging’ times since World War II.

The Prime Minister said, “Now is the moment for Britain to choose it’s future. This morning, I asked the King for parliament to be dissolved and a general election will happen on July 4.”

There are a total of 18 parliamentary seats across the North, including the three local constituencies of West Tyrone, Fermanagh South Tyrone, and Mid Ulster.

Tyrone’s three sitting MPs, Órfhlaith Begley, Michelle Gildernew and Francie Molloy, all represent Sinn Fein, although of this trio, only Ms Begley will be seeking re-election.

Mid Ulster’s Mr Molloy has said that he will be retiring from frontline politics, while Fermanagh South Tyrone’s Ms Gildernew is contesting the European elections in the South on July 7.

This means there will be at least two new MPs representing Tyrone constituencies at Westminster after the election.

Polls suggests the Labour Party needs a UK-wide swing of 12.7 per-cent to win with just a small majority in the next Parliament.

This would be a record swing in votes, considerably higher than the 10.2 per-cent achieved by New Labour’s Tony Blair in 1997 and higher even than the 12 per-cent achieved by Clement Attlee in the last July election held in 1945.