I consider all politicians to be on a level somewhere below cockroaches and earthworms. However, if I were a Machiavellian Conservative, I´d say:
"Right! Let´s call for an election! We´ve got the Ukraine crisis, the world recession crisis, and the backlash from Covid and the Brexit thing. Put the opposition in. They can blame us for a year or so, then they`re on their own."
Thus, you would be considered "honest" and thinking of the nation, rather than your scrappy little political party. And then, if the (current) opposition did OK, fine. If they didn´t, you can blame them for 4 totally unrelated events that a political party would have had to face, regardless of their political leaning, and which did not depend on them. No-one predicted Brexit, Covid, Ukraine or the world recession.
We are not in a recession, here. Inflation is high, but unemployment is good.
I just filled my sister's car with gasoline/petrol, and it was $3.15 a gallon (a gallon is 3.8 liters), so we are not getting hit like Europe is for energy.
With national elections a few weeks away, conservatives are calling the economy a train wreck, but it really isn't.
CD