After the historic defeat of the conservative Tories in the British general election, Rishi Sunak wants to give up the party leadership, he announced on Friday. But only “once the course has been set for a successor”.
The Tories are now facing a conflict of direction. They achieved a historically bad result, winning only 121 seats in parliament, a loss of 250 seats. More cabinet members were voted out than ever before, and former leader Liz Truss also lost her mandate.
Huge defeat for Sunak
It is a tough defeat for the 44-year-old Sunak. “The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory,” said a visibly dejected Sunak. After announcing his resignation outside the British prime minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street, Sunak went to meet King Charles to formally seal his end as prime minister.
After counting almost all constituencies, Labour has at least 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. In the 2019 election, the party won only 202 seats. Party leader Keir Starmer will thus become the new British head of government; he is instructed by the King to form the government today.
Right-wing populists on the rise
A number of votes also went to the right-wing populist Reform UK party. Chairman Nigel Farage, who once played a key role in pushing for Brexit, won the Commons for the first time on the eighth attempt. His party is likely to put further pressure on the Tories.
The Conservatives have governed the UK for 14 years. Starmer will now become the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. “The people have spoken, they are ready for change. They have voted and it is time for us to deliver,” he said. Starmer, who emphasises his down-to-earth background, was previously head of the Crown Prosecution Service and has two teenage children.
Labour is once again more in the political centre
Starmer led Labour back to the political centre after the party had shifted far to the left under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – now re-elected as an independent. He also took decisive action against anti-Semitic tendencies within his own ranks. When it came to political substance, the previous opposition leader remained rather vague on many fronts.
EU Council President Charles Michel congratulated Starmer on Friday on his party’s “historic” victory in the general election and stressed that he looked forward to future cooperation. “The European Union and the United Kingdom are important partners who work together in all areas of mutual interest to our citizens,” Michel said via the online service X. He will see Starmer at the European Political Community (EPC) summit, scheduled for July 18 in England, “where we will discuss common challenges such as stability, security, energy and immigration.” The commission was set up in 2022 as an informal discussion platform for the EU’s 27 countries and 20 partner states to strengthen cohesion, cooperation and dialogue.
Starmer had announced that he wanted to rebuild closer ties with the EU, but without reversing Brexit. Experts say Brussels hopes the change of leadership in London will lead to a more pragmatic and constructive dialogue after relations with Starmer’s Conservative predecessors were rather unstable.
Source: Krone
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