LONDON (AP) — The British are under siege Prime Minister Rishi Sunak On Friday, he urged voters and his troubled party to stick with him after two English regions elected opposition party lawmakers in seats held by Sunak's Conservatives for years.
The results will get worse Concerns among conservatives After 14 years in power, the party is heading towards defeat when national elections are held in less than a year. The Conservative Party consistently lags between 10 and 20 points behind the centre-left Labor Party in national opinion polls.
Results announced on Friday showed that Labor candidate Damian Egan won the House of Commons seat for Kingswood in southwest England, while Labour's General Kitchen won the seat of Wellingborough in the center of the country. The Conservatives won by a large margin in the last national election in 2019, but saw support collapse in Thursday's special election.
The UK's Reform Party – formerly known as the Brexit Party – came in third place, leaving the Conservatives facing pressure from the right as well as the left.
Labor candidate Damian Egan gives a speech after being declared the Member of Parliament for Kingswood, after being declared the winner of the by-election in Kingswood, at Thornbury Leisure Centre, Gloucestershire, Friday, February 16, 2024. (Ben Birchall // PA via AP)
Labor leader Keir Starmer said the results “show that people want change.”
But Sunak implored voters to “stick with our plan, because it is starting to deliver the change the country wants and needs.”
“Obviously we've been through a lot over the last couple of years as a country, but I really believe that at the beginning of this year we're pointing in the right direction,” he told reporters.
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She was elected on Thursday to replace one MP who resigned in protest against Sunak's election – Lack of commitment to green energyAnother was fired over allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct.
The Conservatives have now lost 10 by-elections since the last general election, more than any administration since the 1960s. That includes six defeats – and one win – since Sunak took office in October 2022. He replaces Liz Truss, who rocked the economy with… Plan for unfunded tax cuts He lasted only seven weeks in office.
Sunak, the fifth leader of the Conservative Party since 2016, restored a measure of stability, but failed to revive the ruling party's popularity.
The Conservatives have been in power at national level since 2010, years that have seen austerity in the wake of the global banking crisis, Britain's divisive decision to leave the European Union, a global pandemic and a European war that has caused the worst cost of living crisis in decades.
Opinion polls show the Conservatives losing support across the country, from wealthy southern voters put off by Brexit, to working-class northern voters who switched from Labor in the 2019 election, when he was then prime minister. Boris Johnson He promised to spread prosperity to long-neglected areas.
These promises have largely gone unfulfilled, and Britain's economic growth has come to a near standstill Sliding into stagnation The end of 2023 for the first time since the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic. This limits the government's scope to appeal to voters through tax cuts before elections.
Egan, the victorious Kingswood candidate, said: “14 years of Conservative government has sucked the hope out of our country with a sense that no matter how hard you work, you can’t move forward.”
“It doesn't have to be this way – you know it, I know it, we all know it,” he said.
Conservative Party leader Richard Holden described the results as “deeply disappointing”, although the party said the low turnout – less than 40% of eligible voters cast their ballots – was a sign of British voters' lack of enthusiasm for Labour.
But John Curtis, a pollster at the University of Strathclyde, said the results confirmed the Conservatives faced a “very big electoral problem”.
“The Conservatives will have to break a historical record to get back to where they are,” he told the BBC.
Sunak must call an election this year, although the exact date is up to him.
Conservative losses may embolden Sunak Many competitors In the A divided party, who are already positioning themselves for the leadership race that is likely to follow an election defeat. Some even want to oust Sunak sooner, and replace him with a hardliner who might win back voters from the Reform Party, which wants to limit immigration, cut taxes, and roll back green energy measures.
“To win back voters, we need to shift to a more conservative policy, on tax and spending, immigration, net zero, public sector reform and more,” David Frost, the former Conservative Brexit minister, wrote on X. “It is too late.” But it is not too late – yet –.”
In addition to grappling with a faltering economy, Sunak is trying to overcome a ban imposed on him by the UK Supreme Court Signature migration policyIt is a plan to send asylum seekers arriving in Britain across the English Channel on a one-way flight to Rwanda. The plan was announced nearly two years ago, but no flights took off amid political and legal opposition.
Sunak's only consolation is that the Labor Party is also in turmoil. Last week, the party flipped the switch Green investment pledgeSaying the Conservatives left the economy too weak to meet its commitment.
Starmer is also struggling to stamp out allegations of anti-Semitism within the party. This week's party She disavowed her candidate Another special election was held after a newspaper published statements he made during a local party meeting in which he claimed that Israel had allowed the October 7 Hamas attack to occur as a pretext. To invade Gaza.
Critics say this is evidence that Labor has not eradicated the root of the problem Anti-Semitism that worsened Under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and a critic of Israel. It is unclear whether the controversy has hurt Labor in the polls.
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