Four years ago, after yet another prime minister resigned, angry opposition MPs demanded a general election.
The official Opposition party at that stage, of course, as Liz Truss left office, was Keir Starmer’s Labour.
Now, as he prepares to depart Downing Street, the calls from his own benches for voters to be given a say have fallen rather more silent.
There is no constitutional requirement for a general election to accompany a change of prime minister. But PMs have, on occasion, decided to hold an election soon after entering No 10.
Here we look at whether there will be a vote in the next few months – and why some people are arguing there should be one.
Which Labour figures have called for a general election in the past and what do they say now?
The day Ms Truss announced her resignation, one high-profile Labour mayor tweeted "#GeneralElectionNow". That figure was Andy Burnham, then the mayor of Greater Manchester.
But he was not the only one. On the same day, Sir Keir also called for an immediate election, warning the Conservatives that Britain is not their “personal fiefdom to run how they wish”. And Angela Rayner, Labour’s then deputy leader, said the Tories had “no mandate. No one voted for this”.
There are few calls from the Labour benches for a general election now, however.
The party’s powerful ruling national body has set out a timetable for a contest to replace the Labour leader and install a new PM in No 10 by the middle of next month. But there is no mention of a general election.
And, at the start of this month, a spokesperson for the man seen as Sir Keir’s inevitable successor, Mr Burnham, ruled out an early election were he to enter the race for Downing Street. That view was echoed by Wes Streeting – now seen as a frontrunner to be the next chancellor – last week.
Why are some Labour MPs calling for a general election?
Writing in this paper on Monday, Mike Tapp, the migration minister, warned that over the past decade, too many prime ministers have been removed and replaced by their parties rather than by the country.
The consequences, he argues, extend far beyond Westminster and are shifting the incentives within politics in unhealthy ways.
Instead of concentrating on governing the country, he warns MPs can become drawn into what he describes as endless internal power struggles – with the wider country inevitably paying the price.
He is calling for a law requiring a general election after the forced removal of a prime minister in a bid to restore the balance between government and democratic consent – and “palace coups”.
There are other reasons why Labour MPs back an early election.
Some believe that, were the next PM to depart dramatically from the 2024 manifesto on which the party was elected, they would struggle to argue that they had the mandate for radical change. At that point, they argue, they would have to go to the country again to seek a mandate. There is historical precedent for such a move. Boris Johnson decided to hold a vote on the slogan of “get Brexit done’” and was rewarded with a decisive victory.
Why might the next prime minister call a general election?
There are two main reasons – a bounce in the polls and to catch Reform on the hop. Most new prime ministers have what is sometimes termed a “political honeymoon”. Pretty soon after they enter office, the public responds to a fresh face at the tiller and decides to give them a chance.
The question is, of course, how big could that bounce becomes, and whether it might allow Labour to catch Reform in the polls.
The second reason would be the belief within Labour that Nigel Farage’s party is not ready for a general election. Reform have professionalised immensely over the last year, but last week's Makerfield by-election revealed some of its key deficiencies. On Tuesday, Mr Farage even admitted some of them, including the fact that their candidates' social media posts had not been properly vetted. “It wasn't pretty, it wasn't good, it didn't help,” he said.
All this leaves serious question marks over how many quality candidates Reform would be able to stand if a snap election, in which it would want to contest most of the 650 seats up for grabs, was called this autumn.
And why might they not?
A general election would see Labour almost certainly forfeit its huge majority in the House of Commons – and potentially lose power altogether.
The next PM will be keenly aware that Labour have trailed Reform in the polls for more than a year.
The risk would be that a new prime minister would have just a few months to stamp their authority on government, before potentially being turfed out by voters.
Another factor is the fact that most Labour MPs would oppose a snap election – not least because dire opinion polls suggest that many of them would lose their jobs.
The political churn in recent years means that an unusually high number of Labour MPs were first elected only in 2024. Many will have spent years working towards their lifetime goal of entering parliament, and be unwilling to give that up after just two years.
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