The United Kingdom’s left-leaning Labor Party won — and won big — the country’s national election on Thursday, returning to power after 14 years at the helm of the Conservative Party.
Labor made many promises in the party’s quest to win the race, and keeping them will be a mammoth task that will require tackling Britain’s biggest problems, including the cost of living, immigration and restructuring the country’s services such as health and transport. A combination of poor policy and world events beyond the government’s control has left the UK economy struggling, resulting in wage stagnation and a lack of investment in state services.
The party’s exact vision on the issue is still being consolidated as the party figures out how to harness its newfound strength.
After a truly chaotic rotation through three Conservative prime ministers in just under four months, Labour’s message of stability resonated with voters as they voted Labor members into a majority of 650 House of Commons seats, making leader Keir Starmer prime minister. the minister
Starmer is somewhat of a cypher, his platform this campaign often vague or sensational, and the British public decidedly so little hot On him as a figure. But he Successful rehabilitation The image of the Labor Party to more moderate voters, and above all, what he has going for him is that he is not conservative.
“[Conservatives are] Suffering from being in power for 14 years. Ben Ansel, professor of comparative democratic institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford, told Vox. “And at that point it’s very, very difficult to win another election anywhere.”
Labour’s campaign slogan is simple: “Change.” But now it will not be enough to simply be an alternative to conservatives; Labor must deliver on the core policy issues of public concern to form a stable government to stay in power.
Britain’s big problems and how Labor plans to solve them
Britain’s multiple overlapping crises have been building for years, and they won’t be instantly resolved by a change in leadership alone.
Take the UK’s battered public service. When the Conservatives (also known as the Tories) came to power in 2010 under current Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the world was recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. The UK was particularly hard hit, with much of its economy based on the financial sector.
Cameron’s government to bring the country out of the dire financial crisis Decided to invest in social services like National Health Service (NHS), education, and transit, especially railways. That choice resonates today, and has meant long waits to see doctors, crumbling public schools, wage stagnation in the care and public service sectors, and, accordingly, labor strikes to protest working conditions and pay.
And while the economic and living costs are not unique to the UK, some Tory decisions have made its situation uniquely challenging. The choice to leave the European Union, first decided in a referendum in 2016 and pushed through by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019, has had damaging effects on trade, employment and the cost of living. An independent analysis estimated That the UK’s real GDP today is about 2 to 3 percent lower than it would be if it were in the EU. The The decision to leave the EU is now deeply unpopular.
The Tories have overseen “single-handedly the worst economic performance of any decade in Britain since the Napoleonic era,” Ansell said, adding that Labour’s promised change – however vague – is attractive.
Scandals and policy flip-flops haven’t helped the conservatives either. Johnson fell from grace after a series of scandals known as Partygate, in which he allowed or participated in social gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the rest of the country was in lockdown. After his ouster in 2022, Liz Truss – Johnson’s foreign secretary – won the leadership of the party and the country. He lasted 44 days after proposing tax cuts on corporations and the super-rich that were so disastrous. Global bond markets in panic for the week. Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed suit, positioning himself as the adult in the room who could set things straight.
But his signature policy position was to “stop the boats”, referring to the rise of irregular immigration from Europe via small boats crossing the English Channel. To do this, his government pursued a policy of detaining and deporting irregular migrants to Rwanda. In addition to effectively violating the right to asylum, the plan has been ineffective; No one has been sent to Rwanda, although some migrants have been detained under the scheme. Costing the government an estimated £8 million a day. Also worth noting: Asylum seekers make up Only 11 percent of immigrants to Britain population
And overall immigration though was the all-time high in 2022Most voters don’t actually see migration as one of their top three problems — and how people feel about immigration very broken. In a sense, the Tory government is suffering from a crisis of its own making with the Rwanda policy and the illegal immigration law – the establishment of draconian policies which have not succeeded and which voters see as costly.
All this dysfunction resulted in the defeat of the Tories. (Going to the polls, The Economist even backed Labor for the first time in almost two decades.)
Labour’s signature achievements in the post-World War II era were the creation of the NHS and the establishment of a national minimum wage. Now, the party must tackle three overlapping marquee issues: the economy and cost of living; Public Service Struggle; and migration policy. But, as his outline Election manifesto, Labour’s policy suggestions are not terribly specific or, in most cases, not evident. In the short term, the party is expected to focus on trying to form a stable government to retain power.
In the short term Starmer and Labor have made promises Immediately undo the Rwanda policy On Power Gains, focus on human trafficking groups who operate and profit from dangerous boat crossings. The Labor government says Will again allow irregular migrants to apply for asylumand pledged to address the backlog of unprocessed asylum cases due to illegal immigration laws.
For the economy, Labor has made promises Invest in industry and create a business environment, What exactly does this mean without an outline? In managing the living wage crisis, Labor could raise the minimum wage or encourage cities to adopt a “living wage.” As is OxfordA local rule that recognizes the different costs of living in different areas.
Labor will choose to “improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the European Union, by cutting down unnecessary barriers to trade”, although it will not rejoin the EU or the Common Market. Negotiated agreements on agriculture and livestock aim to reduce food costs, and professional services agreements will help UK professionals work in EU countries.
Labor also promised “Save the NHS“And build a health service for the future. But that will require public investment, as Starmer’s party has promised the service will always be publicly funded. That means money from somewhere, and raising personal taxes at the moment is the economic challenge facing many voters. Not an attractive option because, in the short term, Labor promises to reduce waiting times, enlist the private sector to deal with high volumes and improve relations with health care unions.
But can Labor deliver – and retain power?
Exactly how Labor plans to meet their goals is an open question. Labor doesn’t really have a strong, bold new policy on the economy; Don’t have a big, splashy ideological framework.
And on one of the main factors dragging down Britain’s economy – Brexit – Labor plans to strike deals with the EU on agriculture and livestock to reduce food costs, and hopes to strike professional services deals that will help UK professionals work in EU countries. still, Many of the economic pains of Brexit may remain.
And on immigration, apart from scrapping the Rwanda plan, there isn’t much daylight between Labor and the Tories.
“The current government has already focused enough on enforcement,” Ben Brindle, a researcher at the Oxford Migration Observatory, told Vox. Labour’s view is to “still do much of what current enforcement operations are already doing” to curb irregular immigration. And when it comes to immigration for students and skilled labor, net migration may be less than what Labor is actually doing anyway, because of policies already in place.
There is labor Offer a hand to deal with housing and the transit crisis — including by Relaxation of building restrictions Immediately so that new housing, infrastructure, and transit services can actually be built, which can help stimulate the economy.
“We’re using a planning system that was created in 1948, it’s incredibly strict, and it means we’re not building anything anywhere,” Ansell said. “We have a housing crisis. We have a transport crisis, and we have a public infrastructure crisis and an energy crisis – it’s all because we can’t produce stuff. that gives [Labour] a narrative. It also gives businesses the expectation that there’s actually going to be loads and loads of infrastructure or investment, and probably over a period of time.”
Ultimately, though, Labor sees the formation of a stable government, especially after years of post-Brexit uncertainty, as a useful framework – but potentially only part of its mandate. The party’s manifesto is built around the idea that it can “stop the chaos” that helped turn external problems into national crises during its time in power.
