When is the UK general election and who can vote?

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the next general election will take place on 4 July.

Mr Sunak's announcement ended months of speculation about when the UK would go to the polls.

The general election is to elect Members of Parliament - or MPs - to the House of Commons.

The UK is divided into 650 areas, called constituencies, and each of these elects one MP to represent local residents at Westminster.

Most candidates represent a political party, but some stand as independents.

In a general election, each person has one vote.

On election day, registered voters in each constituency vote for their preferred candidate in their local polling station. Some people vote by post in advance.

Under a system called "first past the post", the candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for that area.

This election will be fought on new constituency boundaries, redrawn to reflect population changes and to try to even out voter numbers in each area.

Use our tool to find out which constituency you are in and an estimate of what the result would have been had these new boundaries been in place at the last general election, in 2019.

After the votes have been counted, the King asks the leader of the party with the most MPs to become prime minister and to form a government.

The leader of the party with the second highest number of MPs becomes the leader of the opposition.

If no party ends up with a majority of MPs - meaning it cannot pass legislation with just its own MPs - the result is a hung parliament.

At this point, the largest party might decide to form a coalition government with another party or operate as a minority government, relying on votes from other parties to pass any laws.

Anyone on the electoral register aged 18 or over on polling day can vote in the general election as long as they are a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a Republic of Ireland citizen with a UK address.

All UK citizens who live abroad can register to vote in the constituency where they were previously resident or on the electoral roll as long as they are not legally excluded from voting.

Those who cannot vote in general elections, external include prisoners serving a sentence in jail, and peers from the House of Lords.

The deadline to register to vote in the general election is 23:59 BST on Tuesday 18 June.

Polling stations are open between 07:00 and 22:00 on election day.

If you have already registered and know that you will not be able to vote in personyou can apply for a postal vote., external

It does not matter whether this is because you will be on holiday, working or simply find mailing your vote more convenient.

You will need to prove your identity when applying.

The deadline to apply for a postal vote for the general election is 17:00 on Wednesday 19 June.

Alternatively you can nominate a proxy, external to vote on your behalf. You and your proxy must both be registered to vote.

The rules for voting by proxy have changed. If you applied for a proxy vote before 31 October 2023, this has expired and you need to apply again.

The deadline to apply for a proxy vote for the general election is 17:00 on Wednesday 26 June.

You can also request an emergency proxy vote, external after this deadline if last-minute work commitments or a medical emergency mean you cannot vote in person. You can apply for this up to 17:00 on polling day.

The deadline to apply for a postal or proxy vote in Northern Ireland is 17:00 on Friday 14 June 2024.

Yes. Since May 2023, voters have to show a valid form of photo ID at polling stations to vote in person at a general election.

There are 22 acceptable forms of ID,, external including:

You can use out-of-date photo ID as long as you look the same.

Alternatively, anyone registered to vote without the correct ID - or who no longer looks like their photo - can apply for a free document called a voter authority certificate., external

The deadline to apply for a voter authority certificate to use in the general election is 17:00 on Wednesday 26 June.

If you realise you do not have valid ID after this deadline, you can apply for an emergency proxy vote, external up until 17:00 on polling day.

Voters in Northern Ireland can use the Electoral Identity Card, external.

The prime minister has formally asked the King to "dissolve" Parliament - the official term for closing it ahead of an election.

This will happen on Thursday 30 May.

MPs lose their status and will have to campaign for re-election if they wish to carry on.

More than 100 MPs have said they will stand down at the next election.

Government also enters a pre-election period - previously known as "purdah" - which restricts ministerial and departmental activity during the campaign.

The latest a Parliament can be dissolved for a general election is on the fifth anniversary of the day it first met.

For the current Parliament, that date was 17 December 2024.

However, 25 working days are then allowed to prepare for the election.

So the next election had to be held by 28 January 2025.

The prime minister can call the election at a time of their choosing, within the five-year period.

Mr Sunak became prime minister on 25 October 2022 when he succeeded Liz Truss, who took over from Boris Johnson.

What questions do you have about the general election?

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