Time running out for Sunak to call general election for May 2

If a general election were to take place on May 2, Rishi Sunak has only a few days left to make the announcement (Rui Vieira/PA)

Time is running out for Rishi Sunak to call a general election that would take place on the same day as the local elections on May 2.

Under electoral law, Parliament has to be dissolved – in other words, come to an end – 25 working days before a general election is held.

This means that if the election were to be on May 2, dissolution must take place no later than March 26.

In practice, Parliament would need a few days’ notice of dissolution, to allow MPs and peers to decide which – if any – remaining pieces of non-controversial legislation should be approved.

It has also become a tradition for the House of Commons to hold a “valedictory debate” just before a dissolution, during which MPs who are standing down from Parliament are given time to make a farewell speech.

As such, Mr Sunak would need to call the election several days before dissolution took place.

If polling day were to be May 2, with dissolution on March 26, the general election would probably have to be announced in just over a week’s time, on March 21 or 22.

Elections are already taking place in England on May 2 to choose new councillors, mayors and police and crime commissioners.

More than 2,500 council seats will be up for grabs across 107 local authorities, while some of the most high-profile politicians in the country are seeking another term as mayor, including Labour’s Sadiq Khan in London and the Conservatives’ Andy Street in the West Midlands.

Voters in Wales will also go to the polls on May 2 to choose new police commissioners.

It is not unprecedented for a general election to take place on the same day as local elections – it happened most recently in May 2015.

The latest possible date, by law, for the dissolution of the current Parliament is December 17 2024 – exactly five years since Parliament first met, on December 17 2019.

If Mr Sunak chooses to run down the clock and wait until this date for Parliament to end, then polling day would have to take place no later than Tuesday January 28 2025.

General elections are typically held on a Thursday in the UK, although they can be held on any weekday.

If dissolution does not happen until December 17 2024, the last Thursday on which a general election can be held is January 23 2025.