 "Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won his seat even as several of his Cabinet ministers were defeated. File Photo/AP")
British voters have made their choice by dumping the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Labour Party’s Keir Starmer will be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Labours have secured 412 of the 650 parliamentary seats, while the Conservatives were reduced to 121. Sunak saved his seat but many of his Cabinet ministers could not.
The results have not come as a surprise as several polls had predicted a rout for the Conservatives, also known as the Tories, after a 14-year rule.
Let’s take a look at why a Conservative defeat was imminent.
Tories out
It was a historic loss for the Tories as the UK emphatically voted for change.
Several Conservative heavyweights, including 11 Cabinet ministers, failed to return as an MP. Former UK PM Liz Truss’ loss was perhaps the most embarrassing defeat for the Tories.
Sunak defied polls that had forecast his drubbing. He has returned as an MP from Richmond and Northallerton seat.
Conceding the Conservatives’ defeat, Sunak apologised to Tory candidates. “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight. There is much to learn and reflect on and I take responsibility for the loss.
“To the many good hard working Conservative candidates who lost tonight despite their tireless efforts… I am sorry.”
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Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhat went wrong for the Tories?
The Conservatives were in power in the UK since 2010 when David Cameron was elected the prime minister. Leading a coalition government of Conservatives and the centrist Liberal Democrats, he moved into 10 Downing Street, bringing an end to the 13 years of Labour rule.
Cameron had come to power in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. As Vox noted, he implemented budget cuts, which were described as “one of the biggest deficit reduction programmes seen in any advanced economy since World War II” by the UK budget office.
Under his rule, public spending dropped from about 41 per cent of GDP to 35 per cent.
Cameron won the re-election in 2015 with an overall majority only to step down a year later. The Conservative leader, who personally opposed Brexit, was under pressure to hold a referendum on whether the UK should remain a part of the European Union (EU). As Britain voted to leave the EU, Cameron resigned as UK’s PM.
He was replaced by Theresa May whose time in office was marked by struggles to get a parliamentary nod for the law required to include the deal she had finalised with the EU on how the UK would leave the bloc.
She stepped down in 2019, with Boris Johnson succeeding her. Johnson called a national election within months of assuming office on a campaign promise to “get Brexit done”. He won a landslide victory and fulfilled his pledge by getting Brexit done.
Britain left the EU on January 31, 2020.
Johnson’s three years at 10 Downing Street – the official residence of the British Prime Minister – were beset by controversies, including allegations of cronyism and corruption. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the scandal known as Partygate. He was forced to resign after allegations that he misled Parliament over parties by government officials in the Downing Street offices in 2020 and 2021 during strict COVID-19 lockdowns.
Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss, who lasted in office for only 49 days – the shortest in British history. She will be remembered for the disastrous tax plans that were brought when prices and energy costs were surging in the UK.
Her tax cuts triggered weeks of panic in global bond markets and the International Monetary Fund openly rebuked the UK government, saying the measures could fuel the cost-of-living crisis.
It was now time for Sunak to take over. Under him, the UK’s economy did get better. The inflation rate fell to two per cent in May after witnessing a peak of 11.1 per cent in October 2022.
Britain’s economy exited recession in the first three months of this year, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by 0.7 per cent from the previous quarter. Still, it is only 1.7 per cent above its pre-pandemic level.
Despite some improvements, the damage was done and Sunak could not do much now.
Tom Egerton, a co-author of ‘The Conservative Effect’, a new study of the Tory government’s 14 years in power, told NBC News, “It’s the last four years, and especially people like Liz Truss, that have destroyed their economic competency in the eyes of the public. The economic competency which we all know is so important in elections has gone. It’s evaporated.”
The pandemic, the rise in inflation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Brexit have hurt the UK’s economy.
According to Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), an independent think tank, the UK’s real GDP is estimated to be 2 to 3 per cent lower today compared to if it had stayed in the EU.
The household disposable incomes in the UK are predicted to plunge 0.9 per cent between 2019 and the end of this year, as per a report by the think tank Resolution Foundation.
Voters are unhappy with the performance of the National Health Service (NHS). As per The Atlantic report, about one in five people are on a waiting list for medical care.
Food prices are 20 per cent above those recorded in July 2021. The housing crisis has further exacerbated the woes of the Britons, with shortages at their worst since World War II.
Sunak also inherited a political mess when he came to power. He harped on the issue of illegal immigration as he tried to divert the attention from the Tories’ economic disasters.
His immigration policy, which includes sending undocumented immigrants to Rwanda, divided the country. The opposition Labour attacked Sunak over his immigration policy, which many see as inhumane.
Sunak called a surprise snap general election in late May but he and his party have failed to capture the voters’ imagination. Pollsters had warned the Conservative party faced “electoral extinction" just five years after the Tories’ historic landslide victory.
Labour pledges ‘change’
Labour has promised to scrap Sunak’s Rwanda policy. While Starmer has vehemently criticised his potential predecessor’s immigration policy, the Labour leader has said he will reduce net migration.
Starmer has also vowed to boost economic growth. The party has promised not to increase taxes “for working people”.
Labour plans to resolve the NHS problem by adding 40,000 appointments every week to reduce waiting time, hiring 8,500 additional mental health staff, and offering incentives to staff to “carry out additional appointments out of hours”, according to its manifesto.
With inputs from agencies