The UK government is planning an autumn 2024 general election, believing a vote later that year brings the best chance of a victory, the Telegraph reported on Monday (10).
According to the report, October and November next year have been provisionally circled by prime minister Rishi Sunak’s team for elections.
Sunak, who became the UK's first prime minister of colour in October last year, would complete two years in office by then.
Well-placed sources believe that going late maximises the chance of the British economy improving, and the new small-boats law would bring down English Channel crossing numbers.
Currently, the Tories are 18 percentage points behind on polling average trackers, down from 24 points when Sunak took over the leadership.
The Telegraph reported that the idea of calling an early election in the spring next year was rejected by the Sunak camp.
The prime minister's strategy echoes that of Gordon Brown who waited as long as he could before calling the 2010 May election.
It helped Brown to deny the Tories a House of Commons majority despite trailing in the opinion polls for months.
However, he ultimately left office as the Tories and the Liberal Democrats struck a coalition deal.
The newspaper reported that some Tory lawmakers believe that there can be another hung parliament as the Tories currently hold more constituencies than Labour in the House of Commons.
Recent focus group research revealed that voters do not know what the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stands for.
Meanwhile, Sunak focused on fixing the problems inherited from his Tory predecessors since taking office.
His strategy is working as inflation forecast to drop to 2.9 per cent by 2023 end, a Brexit deal voted through the Commons and small-boats legislation published.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event