Downing Street is planning to hold the next general election on November 14, George Osborne has claimed. 

Speaking on Political Currency, the podcast he hosts with Ed Balls, the former Chancellor said he had been told the date by a member of the Prime Minister's team.

Last week, Rishi Sunak said his “working assumption” is that he will hold the vote in the second half of the year. 

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Mr Osborne said: “A little birdie has told me that the various work programmes required to get ready for a general election have that date singled out – 14 November.

“By the way, logic leads you there because you’re not going to have it in the first half of the year. I mean, this pretence that Rishi Sunak could have a May election was something we discussed last year.

"It’s a non-starter. He’s more than 20 points behind in the opinion polls. He’s not going to have a spring election.

He added: “So then you’re left with the autumn. And you’re probably thinking: ‘I know, we’ll have the party conference as a kind of launch pad. We’ll fit in an autumn statement, like a mini-budget, either before that or immediately after it.’ And that kind of leads you into mid-November. So 14 November kind of writes itself.”

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News of the November date comes as the SNP are due to formally launch their general election campaign in Glasgow. Humza Yousaf, Stephen Flynn and candidates will be in Glasgow on Friday to kick off their bid for the next Westminster vote.