Boris Johnson could soon gain a powerful advantage when it comes to elections

The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 202 is a dry-sounding piece of legislation that would bring far-reaching consequences, writes Sean O’Grady

The prime minister delivers his keynote speech during the Conservative Party spring conference last week (Getty)

Quite soon, and barring some uncharacteristic change of heart, the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill will be law, a dry-sounding piece of legislation that will nonetheless have dramatic effects.

With this bill, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, will have one of the most important powers historically available to him restored: the unfettered ability to call a general election at a moment of his own choosing. Indeed, the new law has an “ouster clause” that puts it beyond the courts and judicial review – unprecedented and a bit of an act of spite towards the Supreme Court after it declared the 2019 propagation of parliament null and void. Thus, Johnson may again feel free to break his own law, because it contains an explicit instruction to the courts that they cannot question or make decisions about the validity and effect of decisions to do with dissolving and calling parliaments.

The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, as it will soon be, means, in short, that Johnson will be able to engineer an unsustainable pre-election boomlet, concentrate public spending in marginal seats, time-significant policy announcements, prestige foreign trips, and make tax cuts to maximise partisan advantage. Few would presume that Johnson will be able to exercise self-restraint at the prospect of a second term in power. It is the dangerous power of prerogative.