U.K. poll date speculation

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33580, 8 July 1974, Page 13

U.K. poll date speculation

, \ Z P A Reuter—Copyright • LONDON, July 7. The mass-circulation newspaper “News of the World,’’ today predictec that a British (jeneral Election would be held next October 24.

Most speculation concerning the election has centred so far on late September or early (northern) autumn, but not late autumn, as the “News of the World” claims. The report said the official announcement would not be made for at least another 10 weeks, but that leaders of Britain’s Labour Party were now quietly preI paring for an October 24 I election. It said that a brief recall of Parliament for formal dis- ] solution in the first week of (October would be announced I towards the end of September.

General Election as soon a the holidays are over am people are at home and abb to vote," he said.

This timing would enable the Labour Party to begin all-out electioneering just as the summer holidays had ended and the electorate was settled again, the “News of the World” said. However, the “Sunday Express,” another mass-] circulation newspaper, today predicted that polling could be September 19. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Denis Healey) said yesterday that the’ Labour Government was ] being forced to hold a] General Election this autumn because it was no longer able to govern. The opposition Conservatives and Liberals had acted capriciously and irresponsibly by inflicting a whole rash of defeats on the Government in Parliament, which made stable Government impossible, he said in a radio interview. “They produced a situation in which the Government simply cannot govern so we are being forced to hold a