Government to suspend Parliament

So he is then?

Did all the ITV regions cover the statement?

Calendar looked like they were going to do, by going fully live at the start, but in the end up just ‘dropped in’ for about 10 seconds, as if they’d got a top off that it wasn’t big enough news to not worry about missing.

But it's also been said that he will call one if they defeat the government on Tuesday/Wednesday so the take away from this statement is he hasn't called a General Election........Yet!

YTV didn't. They had a live interview about cleaning the Leeds/Liverpool canal.

STV didn't either.

Bit of a damp squib.

The broadcasters apparently previously became increasingly angry that the May Government would announce a statement being made to time with bulletins, have her turn out far later than announced, and proceed to say basically nothing. Johnson has apparently the same tactic it seems.

I had to rub my eyes just now to make sure I wasn't seeing things. A list of potential Tory rebels has just been scrolled up my screen in the form of a Star Wars opening crawl. Good grief...

What's worse, the text was green, in completely the wrong font, and the angle was completely wrong!

Could be argued they're waiting for the lead report from the Six to finish, before you go out. The statement today was pretty much well timed from that point of view. Anyway the way the entire saga has played out it shouldn't come as any surprised that Johnson was late...

Stark contrast though to when the Queen did a live broadcast in 2002 I think it was not long after her sister died. That was tooted for 6pm IIRC and it went out at 6pm on the dot. Now if only the politicians could say we'll have a statement at 6pm and actually come out at 6pm, not anywhere up to three quarters of an hour later.

Slightly off topic. He didn't say Good Evening or thank you.

🚨BREAKING: Senior govt source confirms the PM will call an election for October 14th if MPs block a No Deal Brexit tomorrow. Strap in folks.🚨

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) September 2, 2019

Here we go!