It was a pretty good weekend for the political Left in Europe, as the U.K.’s Labour Party put an end to 14 years of Conservative Party rule. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has taken the mantle of prime minister from Tory leader Rishi Sunak, and is promising to lead the nation into “calmer waters.” As is customary in the U.K., Starmer took the reins within hours of securing a parliamentary majority.
Labour’s Landslide
Labour won big, securing more than 400 seats in Parliament with nearly 34 percent of the vote. Conservatives took a distant second, with only 121 seats and under 24 percent of votes, and the Liberal Democrats took 72 seats and just over 12 percent of the vote. Nigel Farage’s Reform Party grabbed more than 14 percent of the vote, largely playing spoiler to the Tories, but could only manage to secure five seats in Parliament.
“It is surely clear to everyone that our country needs a bigger reset, a rediscovery of who we are,” Starmer told reporters. “Changing a country is not like flipping a switch, the world is now a more volatile place.”
Sunak Steps Down
Sunak vowed to leave his leadership position with the Tories after the disastrous showing, in which the party lost more than 250 seats. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her seat, as did 11 Cabinet ministers. Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Welsh Secretary David TC Davies, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, Attorney General Victoria Prentis, Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis, former Cabinet Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer all lost seats to Labour Party competitors.
“I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change; and yours is the only judgment that matters,” Sunak said prior to leaving 10 Downing Street. “I have heard your anger, your disappointment. And I take responsibility for this loss.”
Another high-profile victim of a simply awful night for European conservatives was the Scottish National Party (SNP), which lost over 80 percent of its 47 seats, finishing with just 9. While Scottish independence suffered a major loss, the Northern Ireland separatist party Sinn Fein took over the dominant position in Northern Irish politics from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Low Voter Turnout
More than 40 percent of voters chose to sit this one out, with nationwide turnout under 60 percent. It seems Labour’s landslide was more reflective of dissatisfaction with the Tories than an endorsement of Labour. Labour improved by only scant percentage points compared to their disastrous 2019 showing.
Nigel Farage and the Reform Party
Among the biggest winners appears to be Nigel Farage, who contributed greatly to the Brexit referendum victory in 2016. He claimed that Reform’s showing was the beginning of a plan to unseat the Tories as the main right-wing opposition to Labour as early as 2029.
“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully it’ll be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029,” he said. The 60-year-old was one of Reform’s winners, securing a seat in his home district of Clacton, in southeast England.
He pledged to “change politics forever”:
The political establishment are in fear in private as to what happened last night with those results in the election…. Above all what we’re going to do from today is we’re going to professionalize the party, we’re going to democratize the party and those few bad apples that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone, and we will never have any of their type back in our organization.
Donald Trump, an ally of Farage, congratulated him on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country!”
Farage only took over the reins of the Reform Party in June. Imagine if he had been working full-time on the project.
After playing spoiler to the Tories, Farage has set his sights on Labour. “We’re going to focus on going after the Labour vote,” he promised.
The Good News
On the Continent, France ended up going to a left-wing coalition in the first round of their snap elections. However, while it was a bad night for conservatives in the U.K. and Europe overall, there was a little bit of good news for the Right. While voters have rejected the tepid conservatism of the Tories, some are beginning to embrace the purer brand of conservatism championed by Farage.
