British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday set July 4 as the date for a national election that will determine who governs the U.K., choosing a day of good economic news to urge voters to give his governing Conservatives another chance.

“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” Sunak said as he stood in heavy rain outside the prime minister’s residence.

Sunak’s center-right party has seen its support dwindle steadily after 14 years in power. It has struggled to overcome a series of crises including an economic slump, ethics scandals and a revolving door of leaders in the past two years.

The center-left Labour Party is strongly favored to defeat Sunak’s party.

The prime minister’s announcement was nearly drowned out by protesters blasting “Things Can Only Get Better,” a Labour campaign song from the Tony Blair era.

Bookies and pollsters rank Sunak as a long shot to stay in power. But he said he would “fight for every vote.”

Sunak stressed his credentials as the leader who saved millions of jobs with support payments during the COVID-19 pandemic and got the economy under control. He said the election would be about “how and who you trust to turn that foundation into a secure future.”

The election will be held against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis and deep divisions over how to deal with migrants and asylum seekers making risky English Channel crossings from Europe.

The announcement came the same day official figures showed inflation in the U.K. had fallen sharply to 2.3%, its lowest level in nearly three years on the back of big declines in domestic bills.

The drop in April marks the greatest progress to date on five pledges Sunak made in January 2023, including halving inflation, which had climbed to above 11% at the end of 2022. Sunak hailed the new figure as a sign his plan was working.

“Today marks a major moment for the economy, with inflation back to normal,” Sunak said Wednesday ahead of the election announcement. “Brighter days are ahead, but only if we stick to the plan to improve economic security and opportunity for everyone.”

Voters across the United Kingdom will choose all 650 members of the House of Commons for a term of up to five years. The party that commands a majority in the Commons, either alone or in coalition, will form the next government and its leader will be prime minister.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, a former chief prosecutor for England and Wales, is the current favorite. The party’s momentum has built since it dealt the Conservatives heavy losses in local elections earlier this month.

The Conservatives have also lost a series of special elections for seats in Parliament this year, and two of its lawmakers recently defected to Labour.

Following on his party’s successes in the local elections, Starmer, 61, last week announced a platform focused on economic stability after years of soaring inflation as he tries to win over disillusioned voters.

He also pledged to improve border security, recruit more teachers and police and reduce lengthy waiting lists at hospitals and doctors′ clinics across the country.

Elections in the U.K. have to be held no more than five years apart, but the prime minister can choose the timing within that period. Sunak, 44, had until December to call an election. The last one was in December 2019.

Many political analysts had anticipated that a fall election would give Conservatives a better chance of maintaining power. That’s because economic conditions may improve further, voters could feel the effect of recent tax cuts, interest rates may come down and a controversial plan to deport some asylum-seekers to Rwanda — a key policy for Sunak — could take flight.

Sunak had been noncommittal about the election date, repeatedly saying — as late as lunchtime on Wednesday — that he expected it would be in the second half of the year.

Although inflation has fallen, Sunak’s other promises — to grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists to see a doctor at the state-run National Health Service and stop the influx of migrants crossing the English Channel — have seen less success.

He has struggled after entering office following the disastrous tenure of Liz Truss, who lasted only 49 days after her economic policies rocked financial markets. Truss had been chosen by party members after Boris Johnson was ousted over a series of ethics scandals.

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A former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has backed the military for shutting down Banex Plaza in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, over the recent attack on some soldiers by hoodlums.

The former military boss said the plaza should remain closed until those who attacked the soldiers are arrested and brought to justice.

The retired general explained that an attack on any uniformed man remains an attack on the state and as such, Nigerians must condemn the act.

Speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday night, the former military boss said the soldiers would have been lynched if not for the swift intervention of policemen. 

He said, “As a Nigerian who has served in the armed forces, of course, retired now, and at the level I did, it would be inappropriate if I see what is going wrong and I could not talk about it. So, from that context, I would say the Bannex Plaza attack is a sad one. Sad one in the sense that when you see soldiers in uniform, whether armed or not, you raise your hands against that individual. Besides being a soldier, for any uniformed person, as long as he is an agent of the state, any attack on him is an attack on the state.

“As so, every Nigerian of goodwill must condemn such act. As for me, I join to support the closure of the plaza for as long as it takes to have everyone responsible for that dastardly act to be brought to justice. This is because if we fail to do so, then we’ll be calling for anarchy.

“The only men who are sacrificing their lives to ensure our collective goods are men of the armed forces, police, and other security agencies. And on a slight provocation, they are now attacked and if not for the policemen and other private individuals who rescued the soldiers, then we would have witnessed Okuoma II which of course, does not speak good of us.”

He, however, added that Nigerians should be sensitised on the sacrifice being made by the armed forces and why there should be a mutual understanding between the military and the populace.

“In setting agenda for this discussion, it must be to the extent that the populace should be made to understand the place of national security and the responsibility of each and every one of us in preserving the sanctity that seeks to make us live in a very good environment,” Irabor said.

The PUNCH reports that the Army shut down the plaza following an attack on some soldiers last weekend, which they claimed was carried out by a group of hoodlums.

The Army, in its defence, said it temporarily shut down activities in the plaza “to ensure that the hoodlums who have been using the Banex neighborhood as a sanctuary to pose a security threat to the Federal Capital Territory were apprehended.”

It added that it had also commenced an investigation to prevent “such unwarranted attacks on our personnel and other security operatives, as has been observed in other areas, such as the unfortunate attack in Okuama.”

[Punch]