Is Labour going to call a GE?

[RainyBea]

Lots of speculation in the press about the Government having so little support that effectively they’ve lost their mandate to Govern so any leadership change would have to trigger a GE. Is this likely? They don’t strike me as people who are overly keen on the opinions of the electorate in general to be honest, so I think they’ll just crack on.

No chance.

No

Of course not.

Why on earth would they voluntarily call a general election?

It’s quite a unique situation, they simply don’t have any support.

They've got a majority in the HoC though.

Don't be ridiculous. Starmer might not be very popular but he is in no way as unpopular as most recent Tory PMs and the only one of them who called an early general election was Theresa May, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake.

Christ they cancel elections due never mind do a ge lol, they will cling on as long as possible, as they know they are dead as soon as people get a say,

Oh mate, that’s the most deluded thing I ever read 😂

It depends where you live and what you read.

Do you really want Nigel Farage as PM?

It isn't. Administrations becoming unpopular quite early on and knowing they'd lose seats in a GE has happened before, so we have a model. Governments with a sound majority only ever call a GE before the 4-5 year period if they think there's something in it for them.

Labour will carry on, possibly with a new leader at some point.

That’s not correct, this Government is officially the most unpopular there has ever been.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/keir-starmer-britain-unpopular-prime-minister-reform

I'm guessing you don't follow politics much, OP?

If you did, you would know that they are not going to call a general election any time soon.

I think you’re right and they’ll try it but I just don’t see how it’s sustainable to Govern when nobody supports you.

No way

Exactly, it's not like politicians say "oh, nobody likes us, so we'd better give someone else a chance".

The government is unpopular right now. That doesn't mean that the majority of people would want to see a general election.

Don’t be silly.

Of course they won’t. Would you, knowing that you’d lose?

Presumably when you say nobody supports them you realise it's actually a significant minority. So again, there is precedent. It's very much doable in a parliamentary system. Some administrations have even pulled it off without a working majority!

I'm not sure the spate of posters asking this question on here have necessarily realised dislike of the existing PM doesn't mean a person wants a second GE in 18 months either.

Absolutely not, did the conservatives hold an election every time they changed leader? Even if Starmer did go, the new leader would carry on until they have to call an election whether they are unpopular or not

Lots of people said this about the last lot too. Are you very young OP?

No. Frequent elections and changes of leadership are bad for a country. It means polices never get put in place, laws are delayed, departments have no clear direction. It messes up the whole machinery of government. A leader who is not popular for five years is going to be better for the country than switching leaders every few months or calling a GE and possibly having a whole regime change again.

There's lots of speculation that Starmer may be replaced because he's unpopular with the public and MPs. You understand that doesn't mean a general election though, right?

I suspect that the OP has heard some of the opposition parties calling for a GE and not realised that this is a common tactic for opposition parties in response to every government whenever they are going through a rough patch. So she thinks it might actually happen.