Before becoming PM and throughout her tenure, May had repeatedly ruled out an early election under her leadership • Theresa May announces UK general election - live

Before the surprise announcement that she would be going to the polls on 8 June, Theresa May had repeatedly ruled out calling a snap general election.

Just before she assumed the role of prime minister, she said there would be no early election under her leadership. On 30 June, in the speech that launched her bid, she explicitly ruled it out.

Then in her first major interview after taking office she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last September that the UK needed a period of stability after the shock Brexit vote.

She said: “I’m not going to be calling a snap election. I’ve been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability, to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have that election in 2020.”



In her Christmas message in 2016, May also strongly hinted that an early election was not the agenda by calling for unity. She said: “Of course, the referendum laid bare some further divisions in our country – between those who are prospering, and those who are not … those for whom our country works well, and those for whom it does not.

“As the fantastic MP Jo Cox, who was so tragically taken from us last year, put it: ‘We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.’”

As recently as last month, Downing Street said an early election was “not going to happen”.

A No 10 source said: “It’s not something she plans to do or wishes to do.”