Why are British election dates not as rigid as American ones? US elections are on Nov 3 every four years. But in the U.K. there was one on 2010, then no election til 2015 and then one in 2017

Question

Why are British election dates not as rigid as American ones? US elections are on Nov 3 every four years. But in the U.K. there was one on 2010, then no election til 2015 and then one in 2017

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Answer 1

Well for starters, U.S. elections are *not* on November 3rd, they’re on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This means election day can be any day between November 2nd and November 8th.

But to answer your question directly, they have different law and a different political system. and that’s just how their election laws work. Their election laws require elections at least every 5 years but they can have early elections in certain circumstances. U.S. law does not allow for early elections to be called.