Key Moments Of The 2024 General Election Campaign

It has been six weeks since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap General Election to be held on 4 July, to the surprise of even those in his own party.

In the weeks since, the Conservatives have tried to narrow the polling gap between them and Labour. Keir Starmer's party has maintained large, double-digit leads over the Tories since Liz Truss's premiership in 2022, suggesting that the MP for Holborn and St Pancras is likely to become the first Labour leader to win a general election since Tony Blair in 2005.

Here are the key moments from throughout the General Election campaign: 

Rishi Sunak delivered a speech in the pouring rain on Downing Street, in which he announced the General Election would be held on 4 July – despite having previously told Conservative MPs – including ministers – that they could book their summer holidays in anticipation of a probable autumn election.

A couple of days into the campaign, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed he would run as an independent candidate in Islington North, having been suspended from Labour in 2020 over his response to a report into anti-Semitism in the party.

Sunak announced that the Conservatives would bring in compulsory National Service for every 18-year-old if they won the election, which would involve either a military commission or one weekend a month volunteering in “civil resilience”. 

According to a YouGov poll, young Brits opposed the plans by 65 per cent to 27 per cent, while people aged over 65 backed it by 63 per cent to 31 per cent.

The Labour Party restored the whip to Diane Abbott so she could run for Labour in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, but only after some senior Labour figures said they were unhappy with how she had been treated by the