Liz Truss effectively ruled out an early general election today after she won the race for 10 Downing Street.
The new prime minister won the battle to replace Boris Johnson with 81,326 votes from the Tory membership, to Rishi Sunak’s 60,399.
In her victory speech, the new Tory leader promised to “deliver a great victory” for the Conservative Party in two years’ time.
She said: “We all will deliver for our country and I will make sure that we use all the fantastic talents of the Conservative Party, our brilliant members of parliament and peers, our fantastic councillors, our MSs, our MSPs, all of our councillors and activists and members right across our country.
“Because my friends, I know that we will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver.
“And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer has demanded an early general election and has even put his party on a war footing in case the new prime minister decides to call a snap election.
The next general election does not need to take place until the end of 2024.
But some believed that the winner might call an early election to try to capitalise on any initial poll boost and before the full impact of the cost of living crisis hits home.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has also called for an early election, saying: “The government needs to scrap October’s energy price rise to avoid a social catastrophe for families and pensioners this winter.
“Then we need a general election, to get the Conservatives out of power and deliver the real change the country needs.”