Britain Shifts Left

Hello dear audience, and welcome. Today we are discussing the British election with Darren Schemmer, former Vice-President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Ghana, and senior Canadian diplomat who is currently in the United Kingdom. The podcast is at the end of the article.

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Britain Shifts Left

British voters have spoken and, depending on your optics, this was either a massive electoral victory for Labour or a massive defeat for the Conservatives.

The election reflected British voter concerns that the country is broken after fourteen years governed by a number of lacklustre Conservative administrations.

Conservatives have failed to listen to voters who are very concerned about the state of both the healthcare and education systems, a dismal immigration regime that has resulted hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and refugees washing up on Britain’s shores along with the costs of housing refugee claimants in hotels (calculated at some 8 million pounds per day), and the impact on housing and on social peace that they have visited upon the country.

Labour came out with a political platform that offered concrete steps for dealing with these deficiencies including funding for National Health Service providers to work evenings and weekends to clear backlogs. They also promised to increase police forces across the country as well as border patrols too control the number of refugees entering Britain illegally and tax private education facilities to raise funds to enhance public education.

However, incoming Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will not face a “Tony Blair moment”. When Mr. Blair won in 1997, the cold war was over, the European Union had just come into being, and the public was elated and convinced that Britain was entering a new era.

That is far from the mood in the UK today.

People are skeptical, to say the least. Public confidence in government institutions is at rock bottom, with few signs of hope that things will quickly change for the better.

Mr. Starmer will have to contend with a loony left wing that will likely make unrealistic demands, and whose ranks include those who despise Israel and maintain antisemitic attitudes that he claims he has eliminated but that may not be too far beneath the surface.

Their demands for increased government spending on fringe issues and an accompanying increase in taxes will undoubtedly give the Prime Minister some sleepless nights.

Further down the line, the Liberal Democrats had an excellent night with projections indicating some 60 seats – up from the 15 it won in the last election. This centrist option has had a good election, but Britons remain divided between the two major parties and the upstart Reform option and don’t seem ready to give the center a chance at power.

The most significant development was the more than a dozen seats won by the Reform Party led by controversial far-right leader Nigel Farage. His anti-Islamist and anti-illegal-immigration rhetoric appears to have had some traction among voters fed up with the Islamization of the UK and the recent mass pro-Hamas demonstrations across the country.

Mr. Farage will undoubtedly give the incoming Conservative leader (whoever he or she may be) a very hard time as Reform tries to syphon votes from the right wing of the Conservatives now that Reform’s parliamentary presence gives him credibility as a party leader. Indeed, the Reform Party came in second in many ridings ahead of Conservative candidates, creating a new reality of a party on the rise while the Conservatives appear to be a party in decline.

Where does this leave the UK internationally?

As Europe shifts to the right, the UK has turned sharply to the left.

On Sunday French voters are expected to support the right-wing National Rally of Marine LePen.

While the UK is not a member of the EU, observers had expected that a UK government would attempt to improve ties with its cross-Channel neighbor. How the chasm between left and right can be bridged remains to be seen.

Mr. Starmer is expected to maintain Britain’s strong support for Ukraine and NATO although again his radical left may make a lot of noise in opposition to this policy.

Added to the challenge of the left, the incoming Prime Minister must find meaningful jobs for the 410 odd members of parliament he now must control. Many will be simple backbenchers with little or no input into policy or governance.

In his initial address to the country after meeting King Charles III, the new Prime Minister sent a message to his party and the country that the past extremist leftist ideology that led to electoral defeat under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn would not be tolerated. Rather, he emphasised “country over party”, apparently ushering in an administration that will pursue common sense as its bottom line,

Having a large majority of frustrated parliamentarians can be a curse for a leader striving to maintain a hold on his caucus. A huge majority can be too much of a good thing.

We will have to see how the new parliament settles in and finds its feet but, to quote the Chinese proverb, “may you live in interesting times”.

And these will undoubtedly be interesting times for the UK.

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