A new dawn dawned on Friday in Britain as the Labour Party, led by leader Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory. Rishi Sunak, the first Indian-origin Prime Minister, led the Conservative Party to its worst defeat in modern history, with the party’s vote share falling to just 25.8%, below the previous record of 29.25% achieved by the Duke of Wellington in the 1832 election.
Mr Sunak kept his own seats – Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire – but around a dozen cabinet ministers lost their seats, including Penny Mordaunt, who was expected to be the next Conservative leader, and Defense Secretary Grant Shapps. Some of the seats the party lost in Thursday’s election had been held by the Conservatives for more than a century.
Also defeated was former chancellor Liz Truss, who crashed the UK economy with unfunded tax cuts in 2022 and was forced to resign just 45 days into her term. Her resignation brought Sunak to power, and at the time he was seen within the Conservative party as the only person who could be trusted to fix the broken economy.
People wanted change
The main reason for the Conservative Party’s defeat was that the public was desperate for change after 14 years in power. Sunak was able to quickly stabilise the economy, but it was not easy to rebuild an economy hit hard by Brexit, COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war. During this period, India replaced the UK as the fifth largest economy.
Sunak may have known a thing or two about business and economics, but he was never a popular politician. Lacking charisma and sound political judgment, he was often accused of being a weak leader. Despite his promises and efforts, he failed to improve the National Health Service or stop boatloads of illegal immigrants reaching British shores.
Despite being a former Brexit supporter and centre-right politician, Sunak was frequently attacked by supporters of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who blamed him for forcing him to resign, and he also faced criticism from a group of ambitious right-wing MPs during his time as prime minister, including Suella Braverman, an Indian-origin MP who was sacked by Sunak as home secretary.
Giant of Reform
But the most decisive blow to Mr Sunak and the Conservatives in this election was the right-wing Reform party. Led by the veteran anti-immigration stalwart Nigel Farage, the party stole a significant chunk of the Conservative vote across the country, losing at least 100 seats. Mr Farage himself was elected to Parliament after seven previous unsuccessful attempts, and his party’s three other MPs were also elected.
This is a stunning victory in the UK for the centre-left Labour party, all the more remarkable given the far-right leanings in much of Europe, including six continental European countries with far-right governments. Labour’s victory is similar to that of 43-year-old Tony Blair, who won 418 seats with 43% of the vote. In this election, Starmer’s Labour won 412 seats with just 35% of the vote.
So why is Labour’s vote share in this election so unremarkable? First, like Sunak, Starmer is not a charismatic politician. He comes from a working-class background and is a former human rights lawyer, but he is not popular outside the party. Many traditional Labour supporters were outraged by him for taking the party to the centre, abandoning socialist principles, and supporting Israel. Labour lost several seats to independent candidates in sizable Muslim areas where they ran successful pro-Palestine campaigns.
Some Labour supporters unhappy with Starmer’s environmental policies have switched to the Green Party, which won four seats in Parliament for the first time.
Jeremy Corbyn, a former Labour leader and critic of India, was elected as an independent after being expelled from the party over his anti-Semitic comments.
How Indians vote
A significant number of Indians also voted against Labour, helping the Conservatives win the traditional Labour seat of Leicester in central England. Shivani Raja’s victory in Leicester East was one of the few positives for Sunak’s party in the election. Bob Blackman, a vocal supporter of India in the British Parliament, also retained his Harrow East seat by a large margin, indicating that at least some Indians remain loyal to the Conservatives.
India gained independence from Britain under a Labour government, but relations between the two countries have improved in recent years under Conservative governments. There is a strong pro-Pakistan lobby within the Labour party, which has tried to influence policy but has not had much success, alienating many Indians.
But Keir Starmer is a pragmatic politician: as prime minister he will seek to maintain good relations with India, but a Labour government would likely criticise India’s human rights violations and mistreatment of minorities.
One of Starmer’s top priorities is to secure a free trade agreement with India, something the previous government had already done a lot of groundwork for: Indian students, medical workers, and financial and computer experts play a vital role in the UK economy and society as a whole, and this is unlikely to change with a new UK government.
The difficult road ahead
Like the BJP in India, the Conservative Party has a strong electoral machine, so after the postmortem and finger-pointing, the party is expected to regroup as it always has, but given the scale of the defeat, it will take a much longer time to fully recover this time.
Rishi Sunak is expected to step down as leader, but will likely remain in the role for a little longer until a new leader is chosen. He has already committed to staying in Parliament, despite reports that he may return to the United States and take a well-paid job in corporate. The election of a new leader will indicate where the party is heading. The challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform Party will be a temptation to push the Conservatives to the right, but some in the party argue that they need to return to the centre to beat Labour in the next election.
(Naresh Kaushik is a London-based senior journalist and commentator.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.
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