With the pound bouncing around all over the place, backbenchers already rebelling and a 30-point poll lead for Labour, Tory MPs are seemingly receiving increasing emails from constituents asking when they might be allowed to have their say on the new government. In answering these voters’ inquiries, staffers’ eyebrows have been raised after they received guidance from their Parliamentary Research Unit, a Conservative Party briefing team in parliament who feed lines to MPs’ caseworkers based on information from departments, ministers and SpAds. The line they’ve been sent in full:

“At this moment, it is my understanding that the Government intends to stick to the election timeline of January 2025, whereby a general election will be held.”

Guido’s sure activists, MP hopefuls and journalists alike will be joyous at the thought of a January election. Like 2019’s December campaign without the hope of Christmas to get you through…