After months of speculation, it’s finally been confirmed that the country will go to the polls on Thursday, 4 July.
Rishi Sunak fired the starting gun on what promises to be a very competitive and bruising election campaign over the next five – and a bit – weeks.
With many of us expecting an autumn election, last week’s announcement came on the back of the release of the latest inflation figures, with CPI inflation down to 2.3%.
It will be the fourth UK General Election in just over nine years and if there is a change of Prime Minister, the new incumbent will become the country’s sixth PM in less than a decade.
The political parties will be publishing their manifestos and so will we! Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce’s Business Manifesto will outline how we will deliver structured and targeted policy campaigning and lobbying work to address each of these themes:
– Connected Staffordshire
– Digital Staffordshire.
– Global Staffordshire.
– Green Staffordshire.
– Skilled Staffordshire.
We’re proud to serve the local business community in Staffordshire and we hope that politicians of all stripes will listen to us and the businesses in our area.
Watch this space for a formal launch of our manifesto! We’re also hoping to give businesses the chance to meet with parliamentary candidates at a hustings event. Again – watch this space!
A General Election will also see geographical changes to some of our local constituencies. These include the Stone constituency extending to cover Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge. Stafford constituency will now extend northwards to include Eccleshall. The latter constituency is seen as something of a bellwether, being always held by the incumbent government, ever since it was reinstated in 1983.
It all makes for an intriguing few weeks but whatever your political persuasion, we ask that you do the right thing on Thursday 4th July…….by making sure that you cast your vote! If you haven’t registered, here’s a useful link: Register to vote.
2024 is turning out to be a truly global election year, with the citizens of more than 80 countries, including India and the USA, going to the polls in the course of this calendar year.
Voting is a precious democratic right, so please remember to cast your vote on Thursday 4th July.
Whoever ends up with the keys of 10 Downing Street on the morning of Friday 5 July, will do well to check out the results of our latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES), which are now being compiled.
This is where we need your feedback.
Is your business confidence on the rise or in the dumps? Are you investing in training and capital equipment? What are your biggest concerns? Please take 60 seconds to complete the QES and you’ll be helping us to measure economic performance at a local and national level. Click here to open the survey.
