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Rishi Sunak, the outgoing British Prime Minister (file).
New Delhi:
Out with the old, and in with the new (sort of), British voters said Friday, handing Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives a thumping defeat in the general election, losing almost 250 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. And Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor has been handed the keys to the castle.
Mr Starmer and his ‘new’ Labor will now form the next government. Addressing a cheering crowd of party faithful at a victory rally in central London, he declared that Britain was “getting its future back”.
The scale of the Tories’ defeat is unprecedented; The party, in power for 14 years, was defeated in Wales and Scotland, and saw some of its biggest leaders, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, defeated.
The Labor landslide
But perhaps the most chastening blow: the BBC reports that the Conservatives have lost seats in England’s shire counties, which they have held since the early 20th century. For example, Labour’s Joe Morris defeated Tory’s Guy Opperman, ending the Tory’s 100-year hold on the Hexham seat.
READ | “I’m sorry”: Rishi Sunak admits defeat in British polls
The Conservatives are set for one of their worst ever general election returns, and Labour, with more than 400 seats, the best. Exit polls had predicted just such a scenario, giving Starmer 405 seats.
The collapse of the Conservatives
Rishi Sunak, the outgoing prime minister, called for early elections in May.
The warning signs were there then; In fact, they were already present several weeks, if not months earlier, when British voters were faced with, among other things, a cost of living crisis, a growing immigration problem, poor infrastructure and health care, and the Tories with a serious image problem struggled. .
READ | Labor scores in British polls, first loss for Rishi Sunak since 2010
At the time, the Conservatives – who were asking the British public for permission to install a sixth prime minister since 2010 – were already 20 points behind a rejuvenated Labor Party, but Mr Sunak seemed to believe he could close and narrow the gap. Unfortunately this did not happen.
Why Labor defeated Conservative?
Choose. But the crumbling NHS, or National Health Service, and the state of the economy, and associated concerns such as price rises, are high on the list of reasons for the defeat.
An IPSOS Issues Index poll in June found that concerns about cuts to funding for the NHS – a free healthcare program that every other country would love to have – topped the list, followed by the economy, immigration, price rises, housing and health care. schools, defense and anti-terrorism, and crime.
Mr Sunak scored poorly on all these measures, including overseeing the country’s lowest growth rate since the early 19th century and a steep rise in the cost of living, the highest in 41 years.
The British economy has slowed down significantly over the past decade, which even takes into account the global crisis caused by the Covid pandemic. GDP per capita grew by only 4.3 percent between 2007 and 2023.
In the previous 16 years, that figure was as high as 46 percent.
This caused incomes to stagnate.
A report by the impartial research institute Centers for Cities showed that the British had done so on average £10,200 less to save or spend between 2010 and 2022, compared to 1998-2010 growth rates.
And Britain’s national debt – £2.7 trillion – is higher than at any time since the 1960s.
Some relief soon seemed to come; in May, the International Monetary Fund called a “soft landing” for the economy and raised its growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7.
And perhaps it was because of that expectation that Mr Sunak called for an early election.
The NHS is seen by many as the crowning achievement of the British government’s public services.
The funding of Britain’s national free healthcare programme, the NHS, has been a key problem (file).
The Conservatives had repeatedly stressed the importance of the NHS, but that concern did not seem to translate into support on the ground for doctors, nurses and medical professionals.
The budget allocations under the Tories paint a clear picture. Since coming to power in 2010, health care spending has grown at an average annual rate of 2.8 percent, compared to 3.6 percent over the past 50 years. This includes the period of the pandemic.
In April, an estimated 7.6 million people were waiting for treatment under the NHS scheme, with more than 50,000 having been on the list for more than a year. The average waiting time was 14 weeks.
The number of people waiting for medical care, including those with serious conditions, has tripled under Conservative rule, according to NHS data published by Al Jazeera.
Brexit also had its say, with restrictions on movement preventing medical professionals from mainland Europe from being hired or choosing not to sign up. As terrible as this sounds, this was good news for India, as the NHS turned to its former colony to fill more than 2,000 doctor posts.
Immigration was also a problem. Sunak’s government had promised to crack down on illegal entries into Britain, but its Rwanda policy – which was supposed to act as a major deterrent – failed to deliver.
Two years after the announcement, not a single plane has taken off to the African country.
According to Sky Newsthe Conservatives have spent more than £300 million on the scheme, which they say would deter illegal immigrants from entering Britain on small boats across the English Channel.
Under this policy, the prisoners would be sent to Rwanda while they seek asylum.
A total of 1.18 lakh people are awaiting an initial decision on their applications by the end of March.
The rising one cost of living and shooting up House pricesbut also steep increases in rental priceshave also been a problem that the Conservatives seemed unable to control.
Truss, Johnson’s contributions
It wasn’t just Sunak’s failures that led to the Conservatives’ demise.
Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Tories and prime minister in July 2019, shortly before the pandemic hit. His disheveled appearance and chaotic leadership led to a rebellion by his ministers and, of course, the ‘Partygate’ scandal that referred to parties in 10 Downing Street during a lockdown.
Johnson resigned in June last year after an investigation he called a “witch hunt.”
The last three Conservative Prime Ministers: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson (file).
He was followed by Mrs Truss, Britain’s fourth female prime minister and shortest-serving leader.
READ | Britain in crisis: why the country has had three PMs in three years
Ms Truss – who lost her South West Norfolk seat – has faced criticism for her handling of the economy, including a controversial mini-budget that sparked market turmoil. Her leadership was further undermined by policy reversals and a loss of confidence among MPs.
What kind of work now?
Starmer’s leadership has been crucial to Labour’s revival.
Since taking on this role in early 2020, he has repositioned the party towards the center and resolved issues within the party, including infighting and anti-Semitism.
Looking ahead, he will want to avoid repeats of the Tories’ mistakes, including October 2022, when Mrs Truss’ government proposed unfunded tax cuts that spooked markets and sent the pound plummeting.
That ill-advised move cost her her job.
“We did it. Thank you… you changed our country,” Starmer told triumphant supporters at a victory rally in central London. “(But) a mandate like this comes with a great responsibility… Today we begin the next chapter… embark on the work of change, the mission of national renewal, and begin rebuilding.”
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