How Rishi Sunak shocked Westminster with a snap general election

When Rishi Sunak told his cabinet, after weeks of agonising, that he would hold a surprise July 4 general election, he immediately won the effusive support of his housing minister, Michael Gove. “Who dares wins,” Gove said on Wednesday afternoon, quoting the SAS regiment’s motto. “You dared — and you will win.” Gove would have received odds of 25-1 at Ladbrokes if he was prepared to back his assertion about a Sunak election victory with hard cash; the prime minister has embarked on a six-week campaign with his Conservatives trailing the opposition Labour party by more than 20 percentage points in opinion polls. Not every minister backed his decision to call a snap election: Esther McVey said he should have waited longer to let the fruits of economic recovery feed through to voters. Ominously, McVey is the “minister for common sense”. But Sunak received an enthusiastic show of ministerial support — loud banging on the cabinet table — as he prepared to venture out into the Downing Street

When Rishi Sunak told his cabinet, after weeks of agonising, that he would hold a surprise July 4 general election, he immediately won the effusive support of his housing minister, Michael Gove. “Who dares wins,” Gove said on Wednesday afternoon, quoting the SAS regiment’s motto. “You dared — and you will win.” Gove would have received odds of 25-1 at Ladbrokes if he was prepared to back his assertion about a Sunak election victory with hard cash; the prime minister has embarked on a six-week campaign with his Conservatives trailing the opposition Labour party by more than 20 percentage points