Brexit hardliner Farage in parliament "Massacre" for Prime Minister Sunak - Labor leader Starmer on course

Keir Starmer celebrates a spectacular election victory with his Labour Party. Head of government Sunak is devastatingly defeated. But there is also a setback for the new strongman.

DPA

04.07.2024, 23:09

05.07.2024, 06:29

dpa

Labour leader Keir Starmer celebrates his victory in the British general election with a beaming face. The 61-year-old and his party are celebrating an unprecedented triumph. Across the country, the Social Democrats conquered numerous constituencies from the Conservatives of the badly beaten Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who are now threatened with a directional dispute. On Friday, King Charles III is expected to officially commission Starmer to form a government.

According to the by-election poll, Prime Minister Sunak's conservative ruling party has achieved the worst result in its history. For the head of government, it is more than just an election defeat, it is a humiliation. His party is now likely to face a complete shake-up. "The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory," says Sunak, visibly dejected. He hints at his retirement from the party leadership.

The latest BBC forecast sees Labour with 405 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, slightly fewer than initially assumed. In the previous election in 2019, the party won just 202 seats. The Conservatives will therefore slump from 365 to 154 seats. Labour's government majority would therefore be twice as large as that of the Conservatives to date.

Many votes for right-wing populist party

Many votes went to the right-wing populist party Reform UK. Its leader Nigel Farage, who once played a key role in driving Brexit forward, made it into the House of Commons for the first time at the eighth attempt.

Counting continued in the morning, but there is no longer any doubt about the most important result of the election: the 14-year dominance of the Conservative Tories has come to a crashing end. Sunak's possible successors at the top of the party are Business Minister Kemi Badenoch and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, both of whom belong to the right wing of the party.

Starmer promises change

In his first reaction, Prime Minister-designate Starmer promised change in the country. "The people have spoken, they are ready for change. They have voted and it is time for us to deliver," he said.

The Labour leader won clearly in his London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras. However, he lost around 17 percentage points compared to the previous vote in 2019. This was mainly due to the high level of support for an independent candidate who had clearly spoken out against Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip. Labor leader Jonathan Ashworth even surprisingly lost his constituency to a pro-Palestinian candidate and therefore has little chance of winning a cabinet post.

For Sunak's conservatives, the election resembles a nightmare. "Landslide" and "massacre" are some of the headlines in the British press after the disaster became known. Several cabinet members lost their seats, including Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and Penny Mordaunt - the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs was previously considered the favorite to succeed Sunak.

"It's clear to me that Labour didn't win the election tonight, the Tories lost it," said Shapps. "We have forgotten a fundamental rule of politics. People don't vote for divided parties." Commentators now expect a real "civil war" among the Tories.

Scottish Independence Party also suffers defeat

The Conservatives have probably not only lost seats to Labour. The Liberal Democrats also appear to have made considerable gains at the expense of the Tories. According to the latest BBC forecast, they now have 56 seats - previously they only had 11. His party is on course for its best result in a century, exults Libdem leader Ed Davey.

It also looks like a devastating defeat for the Scottish Independence Party (SNP). According to the forecast, it has slumped from 48 to 6 seats - a "very weak" result, as Scottish Government leader John Swinney admits.

The right-wing populists around Farage, on the other hand, feel like winners, even if they only receive a few seats. This is because under British majority voting law, the candidate with the most votes wins the constituency - all other votes have no effect. Farage's surprising candidacy is likely to have contributed significantly to the Conservatives' poor result, as he took voters on the right away from them.

Farage's declared aim is to replace the Tories - who have far more MPs in parliament - with a Conservative movement under his leadership. His role model is former US President Donald Trump, with whom the Briton claims to be friends. In view of the internal party disputes within the Conservatives, Farage said in an interview with the German Press Agency during the election campaign that he would be the de facto leader of the opposition.

Less enthusiasm for Labour than exasperation with the Tories

The Tories' debacle is not surprising: pollsters saw the Social Democrats' clear victory coming for a long time. Sunak was barely able to catch up in the election campaign. His party had to contend with mishaps and a scandal involving illegal betting on the presumed election date.

According to the renowned pollster John Curtice from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, the clear outcome of the election was not primarily due to enthusiasm for Labour, but rather annoyance with the previous governing party. Sunak was the third leader of his party in the last parliamentary term, which was characterized by economic stagnation and a sharp rise in the cost of living.

Starmer has led his Labor Party back to the political center in recent years, after it had moved far to the left under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn - who has now been re-elected as an independent. He also took decisive action against anti-Semitic tendencies within his own ranks.

In terms of political content, the previous opposition leader Starmer remained rather vague in many areas. For example, he did not go into detail about his plans for a possible rapprochement with the European Union. On other issues, too, he has so far seemed primarily concerned with not offering a target and not scaring off potential voters. Some commentators have compared his cautious approach to carrying a porcelain vase from the Chinese Ming dynasty.