"Why did he do it? We were all told it would be the autumn and were hoping that by then we could turn things round. It is very perplexing," said one former minister, frowning. Others said they were simply not ready to fight a campaign and that they couldn't raise the money in time.
It was all too frantic and at the same time too final for some to take. Tearful MPs - mostly Tory - were saying their goodbyes in the lobbies knowing they would not return. Grandees in the Commons were delivering stirring farewell speeches in the chamber after long and august careers, Harriet Harman and Theresa May among them.
At the same time staff were pulling out all the stops, dispatching messages by hand, trying to salvage important legislation that they had been poring over for weeks, months, even years.
Sunak's decision to go to the country on 4 July had created legislative turmoil. It meant parliament would shut down later that day, several weeks earlier than expected.
Some laws that had been passing through their later legislative stages were saved and rammed on to the statute book in double quick time. But others that were not so advanced -including one to stop smoking and another to end no-fault evictions that Sunak had said would form key parts of his legacy - had to be dropped.
In the Lords, peers stood up to bemoan the fact that important laws affecting the City of London had been ditched, at least for the time being.
Tories were dismayed. "It just shows how well No 10 had thought this through," said one senior Conservative MP. "We have been talking about these bills for months. Stopping young people smoking was one of Rishi's things. Now he has killed one of his legacy bills off just in time for the campaign. Brilliant." It was an extraordinary end to the life of a parliament, and in all probability, to 14 years of Tory rule.
Denne historien er fra May 31, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra May 31, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.
A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.
'What will people think? I don't care any more'
At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister
I see you
What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results
Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.
Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order
Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness
