I thought the rule in the UK was 5 years maximum, and the Government could announce an election at any time, thus giving them an unfair advantage. So when a party won with a narrow margin, it would hold another election if and when it had risen in popularity, in order to increase its majority.
Interestingly, Winston Churchill, your most famous leader who is an icon to right-wing nutjobs in the US, was Prime Minister twice in Britain, despite being so unpopular there that he never actually won an election.
In 1940 he became Prime Minister without an election, and in 1951 he became Prime Minister again, despite receiving almost 2 million fewer votes than his opponent, who he had also lost to in 1945.
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