Election 2024: Key dates in the countdown to the general election, including: When is the deadline for candidates to be nominated? When is the deadline to register to vote? and When is the deadline to to apply for a postal vote?

Political parties have been caught out by the sudden nature of Rishi Sunak’s announcement on Wednesday – with most candidates in Northern Ireland still to be announced. Reform UK won’t even have time to meet the deadline for registering as a party here – but here are the key dates you need to know:

- May 23 2024: Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said the House will sit for the remaining stages of the Finance (No.2) Bill and to consider a business of the House motion. The House will also be asked to agree to sit on May 24.

- May 24: Parliament prorogued, subject to the progress of business, which means the end of the Parliamentary session, bringing most business to an end.

- May 30: Parliament dissolved. By law, this has to take place no later than 25 working days before polling day, which, in this instance, is May 30.

The days between now and end of the the Parliament will be used to complete any urgent business in the Commons and the Lords, though it also means certain pieces of legislation currently going through parliament - such as the Tobacco & Vapes Bill and the Football Governance Bill - will probably be lost or else scaled back.

- June 7: Deadline for candidates to be nominated. It is highly likely that candidates for some of the 650 constituencies across the UK have yet to be picked. Political parties will be rushing to find people to fill these gaps.

- June 18: Deadline to register to vote. This can be done online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

- June 19: Deadline to apply for a postal vote.

- June 26: Deadline to apply for a proxy vote - in other words, for someone to vote on your behalf - and to apply for a Voter ID certificate, if you do not already have a valid form of photo identification.

This will be the first UK general election where all voters will have to show a valid form of photo ID before casting a ballot.

- July 4: Election day. Polls will open from 7am to 10pm.

- July 9: The new Parliament will be summoned to meet

- July 17: State opening of Parliament.