NEW PM UNDER PRESSURE TO CALL ELECTION IN MONTHS

51% WANT PUBLIC VOTE AS MINISTER ADMITS LEADERSHIP RACE HAS BEEN 'DISRUPTIVE'

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

BRITAIN'S new Prime Minister will immediately come under pressure to call a general election within months, a poll revealed today.

The Ipsos survey for the Standard showed 51 per cent of adults support an election this year, with only 20 per cent taking the opposite view.

Even among Conservative voters in 2019, 40 per cent back Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak going to the country once in No10 to seek her or his own mandate to govern, compared with 34 who were against such a move. The findings contrast with the reaction to Theresa May calling a snap election in 2017, which was memorably slammed by "Brenda from Bristol" who said: "You're joking. Not another one? Oh for God's sake... I can't stand this."

The poll came as digital minister Matt Warman admitted that the Tory leadership contest had been "disruptive" to the Government in the middle of the growing cost-of-living crisis.

Millions of households face energy bills sky-rocketing from £1,971 to £3,549 in October. The main reasons, given by those backing an election, for holding one this year were: