Just hours before Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun for the 2024 general election, the House of Commons was in full flow, listening to treasury minister Bim Afolami announce that inflation has fallen, and firing questions at the prime minister.
Now, parliament will end just as it is working through a raft of legislation, including the criminal justice bill, the finance bill and a bill to clear the names of hundreds of people wrongly convicted in the Post Office scandal. The UK’s electoral system makes it difficult for governments to clear the decks, particularly if, like yesterday, the announcement of an election comes as a surprise.
