Will Theresa May call a snap general election in the UK on 4 May?

The short answer is no, Number 10 has continuously ruled out a snap general election and a Downing Street spokesperson reiterated that line on Monday (20 March).

"There is no change in our position on an early general election," the prime minister's spokesperson told reporters.

The confirmation comes after a weekend of speculation about a possible election as Labour is up to 19 points behind the Conservatives in the opinion polls, according to the latest survey from ICM.

If an election was held tomorrow, Jeremy Corbyn's party could lose tens of seats across England and Wales, while May could considerably boost her slim working majority of 17 MPs in the House of Commons.

An election would also allow May to secure her own mandate. The Tory premier was not even voted in by the party's membership in the wake of David Cameron's post-EU referendum resignation because her final-round rival, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out of leadership race.

The last fortnight has also been rocky for the Government. Chancellor Philip Hammond making an embarrassing U-turn over his now aborted plan to hike National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for self-employed workers and Nicola Sturgeon's surprise call for a second Scottish independence referendum between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.

Elsewhere, the Conservatives have been fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission for misreporting expenses for the 2015 general election and three by-elections in 2014.

There is also the small matter of the 2011 Fixed-Term Parliament Act, introduced under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

The law, which came into force in 2015, means that general elections must be held every five years unless MPs pass a vote of no confidence against the prime minister or two thirds of the representatives back a snap election.

Scrapping the legislation would not be easier either because The Septennial Act 1715 and section seven of the 1911 Parliament Act have been repealed by the Fixed-Term Parliament Act.

That means a new act of parliament will have to be passed to repeal the Fixed Parliament Act, with a bill having to pass through choppy waters of the Commons and the Lords. All in all, a snap general election looks highly unlikely.