May election in Britain?

The Guardian has a space filling piece about the possibility of a May election for Britain.

This bit caught my eye:

If he fails to call an election in May, Labour may start to spread the narrative that Sunak is a “bottler” and “squatting” in Downing Street, which were the tactics used by the Conservatives against Gordon Brown in 2009 and 2010.

I would hope not.  Short sighted political opportunistic point scoring always comes back to bite the left.

The British Prime Minister is not elected directly.  As long as they have the confidence of parliament and can remain in office until the end of the parliamentary term.

It was wrong and irresponsible of the right to attack Brown's tenure and it would be wrong to make similar insinuations about Sunak.

If Labour think Sunak does not enjoy the confidence of parliament they can demonstrate this by tabling a confidence motion.  They will, of course, lose because the conservatives have an 80 seat majority and turkeys are unlikely to vote for Christmas so soon after the festive season.

If Labour were to run a negative 'squatter' campaign it will legitimise future campaigns against Labour leaders.  And the right tend to be better at these, as they are more ruthless and fundamentally don't care about damaging the institution of government.  Every sneer about 'bottling' or 'squatting' will be repeated and amplified when the appropriate time comes.