[sjhoward]

Still MPs until Thursday 23.59 when Parliament dissolves and essentially ceases to exist.

This is the first time we’ve had an election since the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, so we’re all a bit rusty… but dissolution is via royal proclamation, which under the Crown Office Act 1877, takes effect from the time of publication in The Gazette.

Generally, The Gazette publishes royal proclamations at midday—so it’s most likely to be from midday on Thursday rather than 23.59 (though there’s no reason why it has to be).

The pres relevance is that I think I remember Sky News running over the TOTH to cover the ‘moment’ of publication at midday in elections prior to the FTPA. I think I remember them making a bit of a thing of there being no more MPs from that moment… but it’s long enough ago that I might be misremembering (or may have just been a one-off thing in a particular election).