# Next United Kingdom general election
The next United Kingdom general election is the parliamentary election that will choose all 650 members of the House of Commons, following the general election of 4 July 2024. Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the government of the day decides when to call it, and the current Parliament must dissolve no later than five years from the day it first met, 9 July 2024.[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) • [2](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10301/CBP-10301.pdf) One forecasting service gives the latest possible polling day as 15 August 2029.[3](https://www.pollingforecast.com/uk/info/methodology)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Seats contested | 650 parliamentary constituencies, each returning one MP to the House of Commons[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) |
| Voting system | First-past-the-post; voters mark a single 'X' beside one candidate[4](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/news-and-views/media-centre/uk-parliamentary-general-election-media-guide) |
| Majority threshold | 326 of 650 seats for an overall majority[5](https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/seat-tracker) |
| Timing | The Prime Minister requests dissolution; the maximum term is five years from the Parliament's first meeting on 9 July 2024[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) • [2](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10301/CBP-10301.pdf) |
| Latest possible date | 15 August 2029, per one election forecasting service[3](https://www.pollingforecast.com/uk/info/methodology) |
| Campaign length | A 25-working-day timetable set out in Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983[6](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/CBP-10301/) |
| Day of the week | No statutory requirement, but every general election since 1935 has been held on a Thursday[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) |
## Timing and dissolution
The government of the day can decide when to call a general election. Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the monarch's authority to dissolve Parliament was restored, exercisable when the sitting Prime Minister requests it.[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) Dissolution is the official term for the end of a Parliament before a general election; when it happens, every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant, and polling day follows 25 working days later.[7](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05085/)
If Parliament is not dissolved early, it dissolves automatically at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of its first meeting.[7](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05085/) There are no statutory restrictions on when a Prime Minister can request a dissolution, although during the passage of the 2022 Act the Government said there remains a role for the sovereign in exceptional circumstances to refuse a dissolution request, alongside an abiding need to avoid drawing the sovereign into politics.[7](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05085/)
The [Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011](https://www.edgepedia.org/fixed-term-parliaments-act-2011), which had set five-year fixed terms and ordinarily placed elections on the first Thursday in May, was repealed on 24 March 2022.[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/)
## How the election works
At a general election, voters in each constituency choose one candidate to represent the area in the House of Commons. The candidate who receives the most votes wins the seat under first-past-the-post, and the party that wins the most seats across the UK usually forms the government, with its leader becoming Prime Minister.[4](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/news-and-views/media-centre/uk-parliamentary-general-election-media-guide) • [8](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/resources/resources-young-people/who-responsible/uk-parliament/how-mps-are-elected) • [1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/) Voters cannot vote directly for a Prime Minister; the monarch appoints the Prime Minister, guided by constitutional conventions set out in the Cabinet Manual.[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/)
**Counting.** Polling stations close at 10pm, and counting is managed by each area's Returning Officer. Verification first confirms that the number of ballot papers in each box matches the paperwork recording papers issued; postal votes are opened in advance in supervised sessions where signatures and dates of birth are checked, with ballots kept face down until the polls close. Counts may take place overnight, the following day, or later in the week depending on local circumstances.[9](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/how-elections-work/how-votes-are-counted) Exit polls published after 10pm are surveys of voters leaving polling stations, not reports from count centers.[9](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/how-elections-work/how-votes-are-counted)
If no party wins a majority, the result is a hung Parliament, in which the largest party can form a minority government or enter a coalition.[1](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/)
## Polling and forecasting
Opinion polling and seat forecasting for the next election have developed a large technical apparatus. The 2024 general election introduced the widespread use of MRP, multilevel regression and post-stratification, across the polling industry, a technique that estimates both national vote shares and seat-by-seat outcomes.[10](https://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/BPC_ECN_2024ElectionsEvent.pdf) Polling accuracy has a mixed recent record: after errors in 2015 and the 2016 Brexit referendum, 2019 was the most accurate forecast since 2005, but in 2024 polls collectively overestimated Labour by about 7 points.[11](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/4106/documents/40691/default/) • [12](https://fredcornell.com/methodology)
Forecasters handle this uncertainty in different ways. Polling Forecast averages England, Scotland, and Wales separately, corrects polls for their average past miss, and runs 1,000 simulations using real past error patterns; its seat model based on uniform swing called 479 of 631 Great Britain seats correctly when tested on 2024.[3](https://www.pollingforecast.com/uk/info/methodology) Vote-Scope reports uncertainty as seat ranges: in October 2026 it projected [Reform UK](https://www.edgepedia.org/reform-uk) at 134 seats with an 80% range of 86 to 179, noting that a party whose range spans sixty seats is estimated rather than projected.[13](https://vote-scope.com/en/uk/uncertainty/) Pollsters themselves state error bounds: Verian, a British Polling Council member, gives a 9 in 10 chance that a party's true support lies within 4 points of its poll estimate.[14](https://www.veriangroup.com/hubfs/UK/polling/method-and-tables/march-2026-.pdf)
## Political context
The election is expected to take place in a more fragmented party system than in 2024. Commentators report that both major parties are losing supporters to smaller parties such as Reform UK and the Green Party, fueling predictions that tactical voting may decide the next election, and that talk of electoral pacts is becoming more urgent.[15](https://theweek.com/politics/electoral-pacts-parties-deal-next-election)
A YouGov MRP poll published in September 2026 projected a hung Parliament: Labour the largest party on 241 seats, 85 short of a majority, the Conservatives on 130, Reform UK on 123, the Liberal Democrats on 71, and the Green Party on nine.[16](https://theweek.com/politics/hung-parliament-who-could-form-a-coalition-after-the-next-general-election) PollCheck's seven-poll moving average as of 10 October 2026 showed Labour leading on 28.1%, ahead of Reform UK on 23.4% and the Conservatives on 19.1%.[17](https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/gb-polls)
The election will be the first since a change of prime minister without a general election. [Keir Starmer](https://www.edgepedia.org/keir-starmer) announced his resignation as Labour leader on 22 June 2026, and [Andy Burnham](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-burnham), supported by 379 of 401 Labour lawmakers, became prime minister on 20 July 2026, because the governing party's leader takes office without an election being required.[18](https://apnews.com/article/cd99394cbae6ccbf0e1354e73054ce0d) • [19](https://apnews.com/article/d63dea81b0fdc05cf0faf238311a5b4e) • [20](https://apnews.com/article/2cbc843c2f81ca7046b022c419e62769)
## References
1. [General elections, UK Parliament](https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/)
2. [Election timetables, House of Commons Library CBP-10301 (PDF)](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10301/CBP-10301.pdf)
3. [How the forecast works, Polling Forecast](https://www.pollingforecast.com/uk/info/methodology)
4. [UK Parliamentary general election media guide, Electoral Commission](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/news-and-views/media-centre/uk-parliamentary-general-election-media-guide)
5. [UK Election Seat Prediction 2026, PollCheck seat tracker](https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/seat-tracker)
6. [Election timetables, House of Commons Library CBP-10301](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/CBP-10301/)
7. [Dissolution of Parliament, House of Commons Library SN05085](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05085/)
8. [How MPs are elected, Electoral Commission](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/resources/resources-young-people/who-responsible/uk-parliament/how-mps-are-elected)
9. [How votes are counted, Electoral Commission](https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/how-elections-work/how-votes-are-counted)
10. [2024 - an MRP election, British Polling Council](https://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/BPC_ECN_2024ElectionsEvent.pdf)
11. [The Politics of Polling: an update, UK Parliament committees](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/4106/documents/40691/default/)
12. [UK Polling Methodology, Fred Cornell](https://fredcornell.com/methodology)
13. [UK forecast uncertainty, Vote-Scope](https://vote-scope.com/en/uk/uncertainty/)
14. [Verian Polling Methodological Note, March 2026](https://www.veriangroup.com/hubfs/UK/polling/method-and-tables/march-2026-.pdf)
15. [Electoral pacts: which parties might do a deal at the next election?, The Week](https://theweek.com/politics/electoral-pacts-parties-deal-next-election)
16. [Hung parliament: who could form a coalition after the next general election?, The Week](https://theweek.com/politics/hung-parliament-who-could-form-a-coalition-after-the-next-general-election)
17. [UK Opinion Polls 2026, PollCheck](https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/gb-polls)
18. [UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer quits, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/cd99394cbae6ccbf0e1354e73054ce0d)
19. [Why Britain is getting a new prime minister without a general election, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/d63dea81b0fdc05cf0faf238311a5b4e)
20. [Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as UK prime minister, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/2cbc843c2f81ca7046b022c419e62769)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Elections and representation › Elections and referendums › United Kingdom election events › UK general election events › UK general election polling, projection, and reference companions*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license