UK general election: Time for a change?
The decision of the British Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak, to call for early parliamentary elections has caused confusion among his fellow party members. The prime minister received the sanction of King Charles III to dissolve parliament on May 30 before the start of a five-week election campaign. Voting will take place on July 4 instead of the originally scheduled elections at the end of January 2025.
In video interview with News.Az, British expert Neil Watson said that everybody was taken aback by Sunak calling for an early general election, adding that his party is definitely falling behind in the opinion polls about who people think is going to win this election."The UK is actually in a state of economic recession, and I think that the ruling Conservative Party is largely held responsible for that because of the mishandling of Brexit, the fact that the UK, which produces and grows very little of its own food and produces very little, now has no agreement with the EU. That has caused the cost of imports to escalate enormously," he said.
He noted that the effects of the COVID-19 crisis cost the British government billions of pounds to keep the country afloat when people could not work for two years. "Then, of course, there have been the scandals around the handling of the COVID-19 crisis. And there is also the effect of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused the cost of living in the UK to escalate enormously," he added,
"So, the Conservative Party have allegedly tried to bring some policies that should benefit most of the British population, but the fact is that they have not actually had a chance to work yet. So, it was widely thought, particularly by members of his own party, that Rishi Sunak would actually call a general election later in the year when possibly, they might stand a little more chance of winning," the expert said.
"My only thought is that possibly, it may have been to try and catch out the opposition party, the Labour Party, which is the socialist party in the UK, maybe force them into putting together some manifesto that they had not thought they would need to produce quite so early. That's my only rationale behind that," he pointed out.
He said it looks very likely there is going to be a change in the ruling party as the Conservative Party, which have been in place for four years, seem to have failed the British population.
"There have been a lot of questions posed also about Rishi Sunak himself, the fact that he has not been elected by the British population. If we remember, there was the scandal associated with Boris Johnson and him holding parties in Downing Street, the address of the British Prime Minister. At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, he was breaking his own laws and then lying to Parliament. He had to leave. Then there was Liz Truss, the shortest-lived British Prime Minister of all time, who stayed in place for a mere 44 days before she was ousted by her own party. And we have Rishi Sunak, who is really a default Prime Minister. He's not an inherently bad Prime Minister, but it has been impossible for him to actually sort the country out at the moment," he noted.
"He has been trying very much to bring together the right wing of the party. The speeches during the Conservative Party Conference last year were very much indicative of that. He is now very much trying to appeal to the more elderly voters. The average age of a Conservative supporter is demographically about 55, so he's very much trying to appeal to them by stating about reducing the taxation on retired people and pensions, and also about bringing back national service in the British military for all people over the age of 18, or possibly making them do some kind of community service in lieu of national service. But this is something that actually disappeared in 1960, and at the moment, we are not really on a post-war footing in the same way, plus there is a severe lack of infrastructure around to support young people doing national service," the expert noted.
"So it's a knee-jerk reaction. He's recognized that really, the Conservative voters who will turn out on the day, which is, of course, a working day, are either going to be elderly or to the right of the party. He's trying to ensure that those segments of the British population naturally predisposed towards more right-wing views actually come out on voting day, the 4th of July," he went on to say.
He added that the Labour Party is almost predestined to achieve victory in the election. "Sir Keir Starmer, who is only just left of center, very much appeals to those who would normally vote Conservative, or who are centrists indeed. He has a Jewish wife, which means he appeals to the Jewish population of the country," the expert said, adding that one of the statements that has always been made about Labour is the fact that they are the party of taxation, they are against business, but Starmer has been making it very clear that he's speaking to business leaders and now has the support of at least 129 major business leaders across all sectors in the UK. "He's also tried to step away from the overly left-wing socialist side of his party, which had come to the fore during his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. All those who are now Labour MPs or supporters are generally to the center of the party. He's trying to ensure the Labour Party doesn't do what the Conservatives do, which is implode because of disagreements amongst themselves," the expert pointed out.
"Also, we are seeing the fact that the Conservative Party itself has recognized that it's time for a change. As things stand, approximately 80 Conservative MPs, some of whom have been in British politics for decades, have stated they are not going to continue. Indeed, as of today, three Conservative MPs, now former MPs because Parliament has been dissolved, have said they are going to defect to the Labour Party, once again indicating that those who are career politicians in the UK really feel that the Labour Party is going to win. I think it's almost a foregone conclusion that the Labour Party will win. Of course, the extent of the majority is unclear at the moment, and we do not know what areas of the UK are going to benefit," he added.
"Thankfully, in the UK, we're not like the United States where election campaigns go on for one year. We just have five weeks to go until the 4th of July, and then we will know and can get back to business. It's very important that the UK continues its momentum to come out of the recession and also to send a clear sign to countries such as Russia that the UK is still very strong in terms of its policies regarding international relations," the expert said in conclusion.
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