Hold the election before summer's out, say voters

MORE than half of Britons want the general election held by the end of the summer, according to a new poll which piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call it soon.

- Nicholas Cecil

The exclusive Ipsos survey for the Evening Standard found 42 percent of adults would like the poll held before the end of June, with a further 10 percent saying in July or August.

Twenty-three per cent believe Mr Sunak should go to the country in the autumn, September or October.

Risking a possibly more wintry event, 10 per cent opt for November or December, and seven per cent January, the latest possible time for the election.

The results largely follow party lines, with 62 per cent of Labour supporters wanting the poll by the end of June, and 71 per cent of Tory backers choosing between September and January.

Conservative MPs are hoping the economy will pick up later in the year, and that Rwanda deportation flights will start, to give the Prime Minister and his party a poll boost.

But the latest results make increasingly dire reading for the Conservatives, with Mr Sunak's rating as Prime Minister slumping to the worst ever for a leader of a major party, level-pegging with Jeremy Corbyn and John Major in the past.