Chris Mason: The week Rishi Sunak changed gear ahead of general election

The pace is quickening. The collective heart rate of Westminster is notching up.

The summit - a general election - is in sight, even if the time it'll take to reach it is still guesswork.

There has to be an election by the end of January 2025 at the absolute latest.

"I think it's going to be May!" one former cabinet minister confided to me, suggesting the broad Westminster consensus that the election is most likely to be in autumn 2024 might be wrong.