Great Britain: landslide victory for Labor | He won an absolute majority in Parliament to end 14 years of Conservative government

From London

He Labor ended 14 years of Conservative governments With great success What gives An absolute majority In the House of Commons. At the end of this version, the party led Sir Keir Starmer, Raises around 46% of the vote, equivalent to 410 seats, the Conservatives lose 241 representatives, But they retained their place as the main opposition force, followed by the Liberal Democrats with an almost equal number of parliamentary seats and the far-right Reform UK with an almost equal number of votes, making for an excellent election.

A surprise bet on the prime minister’s snap election Rishi Sunak It turned out to be an abject failure. His campaign was based on promises to improve public services with either huge labor tax increases or plausible tax cuts. But beyond these tactical errors of the billionaire prime minister, The result was an unappealable ruling against the Conservatives, who have ruled since 2010 and left a country on the brink of collapse with public services, a public debt of 88% of GDP with £10bn monthly interest, stagnant wages, a housing crisis. Poverty and inequality, polluted rivers and scarcity of drinking water in some parts of the country. In 14 years, five Prime Ministers, seven Finance Ministers, eight Presidents and Home Ministers have been thirteen people of culture. As they say no more to teach a first world lesson: typical banana country.

Labor is happy, the extreme right is dangerous

The Tories were wiped out in three countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland and Wales. The storm flipped dozens of traditionally conservative areas into the hands of the Liberal Democrats in England’s prosperous south or Labor in the country’s center and north.

Forecasters expect the waves to leave the Finance Minister on the streets. Jeremy HuntFor interior, James is smartDefense Grand Shops and Speaker of the House of Commons Benny Mordant, who Today they can no longer dream of installing the beheaded Sunak as party leader. At press time, Rishi Sunak’s home seat in Yorkshire was at stake: the first time in history that a prime minister had lost his home constituency.

The other side of this shocking Labor victory is a warning sign about the state of the country’s politics. Voter turnout fell from 80% under Thatcher to around 56%. This palpable political discontent was also expressed in the polls for the far-right, represented by Nigel Farage, Brexit’s alma mater.

The far right grows

Farage’s reform became the third party in percentage of the UK vote and was essential in the Conservative defeat, By splitting the right-wing vote and allowing Labor and the Liberal Democrats to win (a sort of progressive centre). The high percentage of votes it received (more than 23%) is not reflected, however, in the number of representatives, given the peculiarities of the British voting system.

Britons elect an MP from their constituency to represent them in a 650-seat Parliament. But the parties’ number of votes is not transferred proportionally to the House of Commons, as elections are governed by the popular “first-past-the-post” system (the winner of their area by a margin of one vote takes the seat and leaves the rest vacant—devolved).

Thanks to this distinction, the Liberal Democrats won more seats with fewer votes than Farage’s Reform UK. According to recent estimates, about 54 against a handful of extreme right-wingers. Having said all this, Farage and his party are positioned as a political force for 2029. Among the more extreme sections of the conservatives, dismayed by the defeat, there was talk of a rapprochement or merger. Does this sound familiar to you?

The electoral system also encourages tactical voting, a key factor in conservative defeat: Labor and the Liberal Democrats tended not to vote according to their political identity, but towards the candidate with the best chance. To defeat the Tories in his constituency.

A historic night

The Conservatives started with an absolute parliamentary majority of 344 representatives, followed closely by Labor with 205 seats. Once the results were known, the tables turned. Labor doubled its number of MPs, while the Tories lost more than 240 seats to 131 seats.

A string of Tory defeats and the profile of election night began to take shape with the first result announced just before midnight. Labor with Bridget Phillipson, Starmer’s future education minister, won widely in one part of the country’s north, but Farage’s party came second, displacing the Tories. The same happened with the second and third results announced in the north of the country: first Labour, second Reform UK.

In 2019 Boris Johnson He was able to win over the traditional Labor party in the north with Brexit promises and his anti-immigration agenda. The magic pass that changed the political landscape five years ago evaporated last night, showing extreme volatility in the electorate.

As the hours passed, these symbolic victories multiplied. Nuneaton and Swindon, two constituencies in the east and south-west of England, hold a key to Conservative defeat, representing the average Englishman. Over 14% of those who voted Conservative in Swindon in 2019 leaned Labour.

The Gaza factor

The Gaza factor led to a Labor recovery in the north of England and in areas with strong Muslim populations. Around two million Muslims, traditionally Labor voters, are concentrated in constituencies where they are heavily weighted. Sir Keir Starmer’s stance last year, when he refused to back a ceasefire to stop the massacres in the Gaza Strip, changed things: Labor had to argue by vote with independent candidates who defected from the party.

The animosity reached such a level that Labor formally complained about a campaign of “intimidation, abuse and harassment” suffered by its fighters in pro-Palestinian areas such as London’s Bethnal Green or Birmingham, home of the famous band Led Zeppelin. Twice the police had to intervene after supporters of a Labor candidate attacked them in Birmingham. Shabana Mahmood. A labor activist from the city confirmed to this newspaper the high level of hostility Mahmoud experienced and said he spoke to many youths during the door-to-door campaign. The Gaza Strip “however” “that risk gave the conservatives a victory.”

A narrow defeat for the former Labor leader of Great Britain’s Labor Party George Galloway, in Rochdale, northwest England, another sign of the party’s left wing, marginalized by its centrist politics. A similar result is expected in the constituency of Islington, north London, which he has represented for 40 years. Jeremy CorbynThe former Labor leader between 2015-2020 was sacked from the party this year

Now that?

Labour’s victory is historic and reshaping the British political map, but the hard part begins now. Public Works is leaking water everywhere. The National Health Service (NHS) has a waiting list of seven million patients, including those with serious illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.: 10% posts are vacant due to low salary. In the middle of the election campaign, there was a strike by resident doctors who earned £15 an hour as cleaners. In the last couple of years, there have been austerity measures across the public sector, not to mention services like water and energy, privatized by Thatcherism in the 80s, which provide poor service with very high tariffs.

During the campaign, Labour’s plan was succinct: an attempt to show it was delivering change without showing what it was going to do. As an election ploy, the strategy worked in the face of conservative media and city firepower. Now we have to see if Starmer has any tricks up his sleeve and has the guts to execute them.

There was no change before the handover of government in the United Kingdom. This change is automatic and resembles a real estate transaction. This Friday Rishi Sunak will hand over the keys to the Prime Minister’s official residence to Starmer, who will soon name his shadow cabinet (MPs from the opposition who hold ministerial posts) to form the government.

Starmer announced he would prorogue Parliament weeks before the summer recess to begin his first legislative package. With the growth of Nigel Farage’s far-right in the United Kingdom and similar experiences in different parts of the world, from France to Argentina, it’s easy to see what happens when government fails and tries to make real changes. Cosmetics and some other progressive politics.