English voters will head to the polls just under a year after the Brexit vote and 25 months after the last election. Voters in Scotland and Wales who voted on 5 May 2016 were back 49 days later to vote on leaving the EU. Northern Ireland had elections in May 2016 and Brexit soon after, but they have also already voted in 2017 for a further assembly election. Northern Irish voters will thus have been to the polls four times in 13 months. The last time so many UK-wide polls were called was 1974-75, when there were two general elections (1974) and a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EC. Northern Ireland had extra votes then too: a referendum and an assembly election in 1973 and the Northern Ireland convention election in 1975.

Record of recent elections in the UK. Record of recent elections in the UK.