General elections are when the whole country gets to vote for the Members of Parliament who represent them in the House of Commons. The last General Election was held in December 2019 and saw Boris Johnson's Conservatives win a majority of 80 seats.
The maximum term for Parliament is five years. As the current Parliament first met on December 17, 2019 it will be automatically dissolved on December 17, 2024. Polling Day would take place 25 days later, meaning the next General Election is currently due to take place in January 2025. However, the Queen can dissolve parliament before this date if the Prime Minister asks her to, and an election could be held sooner.
We saw early elections - often called snap elections - called in 2017 and 2019. In 2017, Theresa May called it in the hope of strengthening her hand in the Brexit negotiations, despite an election not being needed until 2020.
