Wycombe MP Steve Baker has said he won't cancel summer holiday plans to campaign for a general election on July 4 after acknowledging that he is 'widely expected' to lose his seat.

Rishi Sunak confirmed that King Charles III had granted his request to dissolve Parliament ahead of a general election on Thursday, July 4 in a statement made outside Downing Street yesterday afternoon (May 22).

The date is earlier than many in Westminster had predicted - with a contest in the autumn widely thought to be more likely - and some have been left scrambling to cancel their holiday plans as election campaigning kicks into gear. 

But Steve Baker, Wycombe's Conservative MP of 14 years, appears to have no such concerns.

The Minister for Northern Ireland, who is projected to lose his seat to Labour's Emma Reynolds according to polling data, told LBC last night that he was sticking to his summer plans after doing 'heavy lifting' on the airwaves following Mr Sunak's statement.

When asked by presenter Iain Dale whether he had cancelled any trips at the last minute, Mr Baker said: "I am not going to announce on air (what my holiday plans are), but I can tell you, I am going to keep to my plans."

Meanwhile, Labour's parliamentary candidate Ms Reynolds, who is estimated to have a 91 per cent chance of winning the seat in a snap election, said she had cancelled a family holiday to 'deliver change that the country desperately needs'.

The former shadow minister said: “During the next six weeks of this election campaign, I am determined to speak to as many local people as possible, and there is not a moment to spare.

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“I have cancelled our family holiday, booked for Whitsun week, so that I can focus all of my time on our campaign to elect me as the first Labour MP in Wycombe since 1951.

“I don’t take anything for granted and I will fight for every single vote. I hope that the good people of Wycombe will put their trust in me and in Labour to deliver the change that the country so desperately needs.”

In a blog post yesterday, Mr Baker said he was “proud of the positive impact” he has had on the town since 2010 and urged voters to “keep Wycombe thriving” by ‘sticking with him’ in July.

He wrote: “Wycombe will be a very tightly fought seat. I am not so sure that electors will want a Labour MP or Labour government, but that’s what they’ll get if they vote for any other candidate or stay at home in this General Election.

“I’m asking people to stick with me so we can finish the job of getting this country onto the course we need to secure all our futures.”

However, speaking to BBC Newsnight yesterday, the MP acknowledged that he was “widely expected to lose” after boundary changes to his constituency area. 

When asked what he would do if he lost his seat, Mr Baker replied: “Skydiving, motorcycling, fast catamaran sailing – (there are) a wide range of things I’d do. The first thing I would do is have a long break.”