Opposition parties are supposed to demand general elections, what with them being the only path to forming a government. Indeed, such is the power of this apparent truism that even Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour voted for an election in December 2019, despite the polls suggesting the party faced electoral annihilation.
Shorn of the constitutionally eccentric Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, British prime ministers once again enjoy the power to call an election at a time of their own choosing. This doesn’t always work out for the best (see James Callaghan not going to the country in the summer of 1978 when he might have won) but it’s a non-trivial advantage.
