General Election 2024

It would be so incredible to call an election and not make it to polling day.

Here's how the cynic in me thinks...

He probably only called the GE because he was warned that there was a threat of enough letters going in to the 1922 committee and he considered being ousted as leader a worse fate than the GE.

Once that was done, and after a few disastrous events for the Tories (not least the return of Farage to split the right vote) he knows the Tories are going to lose heavily in the General Election and therefore he doesn't want to be at the helm when that happens or, more importantly, still at the helm for the start of the next Parliament.

So, what is his choice:

• Be leader for a historic defeat? - doesn't want that and still leaves him as an MP
  
• Give up, resign and not stand for re-election as an MP? - doesn't want that either - that's losing too much face
  
• Do something bad where he is kind of forced to resign and also not stand for re-election? Such publicly terrible such as prioritise a recorded TV interview over the 80th anniversary of D-Day?
  
  

I think it's a calculated exit move that is the least terrible option out of a selection of terrible choices.