Jonathan Ashworth has paid his debt to Sky News using a cheque from The Bank of Chicken after Rishi Sunak refused to call an election in May.
There had been a great deal of speculation over whether the prime minister would go to the polls on May 2nd, when voters are set to go to the polls for the local elections.
He had been reluctant to make definitive statements about the date of the general election, saying only that his “working assumption” was that it would take place in the second half of the year.
But in an interview with ITV News West Country on 14th March, Sunak definitively ruled out a general election on that date, saying:
“In several weeks’ time we’ve got elections for police and crime commissioners, for local councils, for mayors across the country – they’re important elections.”
Asked whether there would be a general election on the same day, he said: “There won’t be an election on that day.”
The statement put paid to mounting speculation in Westminster that the Prime Minister was preparing to call a general election to coincide with the local elections, seeking to reap an advantage at the ballot box from the national insurance cut announced at the Budget.
Labour had been particularly keen to talk up the prospect of a general election in May, with shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth betting Sky News presenter Kay Burley £10 that the election would take place then.
He paid the debt off with a cheque from The Bank of Chicken.
Sunak could wait until January 2025 to hold the election, but has previously said that 2024 will be an election year.
When asked earlier on Thursday about the date of the election, he told reporters: “I said at the start of this year, my working assumption was we’d have an election in the second half of this year.
“And nothing has changed since I said that.”
Labour’s national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden said the British people had “the right” to expect a general election on May 2.
He said: “Until the day to call it has passed, we are prepared for the election to take place on the usual day in the election cycle.
“Rishi Sunak should stop squatting in Downing Street and give the country what it desperately needs – a chance for change with a Labour government. The Prime Minister needs to finally come clean with the public and name the date of the election now.”
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