Labour all the way
BRITAIN’s Conservative Party had it coming. A strong anti-incumbency sentiment brought its tumultuous 14-year rule to an end as the Labour Party recorded a thumping victory in the parliamentary elections. Economic woes, political scandals, intra-party discord and glaring lapses in delivering public services prompted angry voters to throw out the Conservatives. Defence minister Grant Shapps, who was among the prominent losers, put it bluntly: ‘We’ve tried the patience of traditional Conservative voters with a propensity to create an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions.’
Infighting apart, the ruling party came a cropper on every front in the past five years or so, with Boris Johnson’s tenure as PM (2019-22) being especially disastrous. The parties held at 10 Downing Street during Covid lockdowns shocked the entire nation. Johnson’s successor Liz Truss had the ignominy of being the UK’s shortest-serving PM. And then came Indian-origin technocrat Rishi Sunak, raising hopes of a turnaround. However, it soon became evident that too much damage had already been done and it was too late for him to stem the rot.
Sunak has graciously accepted defeat and apologised to his party. While the Conservatives lick their wounds after the rout and go back to the drawing board, Keir Starmer and his Labour Party have little time to celebrate their landslide triumph. Britain is facing a slew of daunting challenges, and the path to national renewal will be inevitably rocky. The nation’s tax burden is set to touch its highest since just after World War II, while the net debt is almost equivalent to the annual economic output. With so many problems at home, the new UK government may struggle to maintain continuity in foreign policy, such as offering unequivocal support to Ukraine in the war against Russia. Even as 28 Indian-origin candidates won, the real point of interest for India is the Free Trade Agreement, which has been in the works for quite some time. Delhi hopes that this pact will be finalised and sealed this year without major hitches.
