{"id":375974,"date":"2024-07-05T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T10:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/05\/laburisti-elezioni-regno-unito-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-07-11T13:26:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:26:05","slug":"labour-wave-sweeps-uk-conservatives-and-scottish-nationalists-down-farage-elected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/05\/labour-wave-sweeps-uk-conservatives-and-scottish-nationalists-down-farage-elected\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour wave sweeps UK. Conservatives and Scottish nationalists down, Farage elected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The first post-Brexit UK election<\/a>\u00a0was historic in many ways, for the\u00a0landslide of seats that the Labour Party won, for the unprecedented collapse\u00a0of the Conservative Party,\u00a0<\/strong>and for the return to the shadows of the Scottish National Party. There was also\u00a0the Liberal Democrats’ most convincing electoral showing in just over 30 years of political existence and\u00a0the appearance on the scene of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK sovereignists (elected at their eighth attempt)<\/strong>. But also for other data that offer significant insight: the newly elected House of Commons will have the highest ever representation of women – 242 female MPs – but in the face of one of the lowest turnouts since 1885, standing at 59.8 percent.<\/p>\n

\"Keir<\/a>
Labour Party leader and next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer (credits: Justin Tallis \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We did it! Change starts now<\/strong>,” were the first words<\/a> of the Labour leader, Keir Starmer<\/strong>, after the announcement of the partial results of yesterday’s (July 4) election: “We need a changed Labour Party, ready to serve our country, ready to bring Britain back to the service of working people.” With 412 seats won in the House of Commons – the best electoral performance since\u00a0Tony Blair<\/strong> in 1999 and 2001 – Labour now has a vast\u00a0majority to govern<\/strong> (the minimum threshold is 326) and, by this morning (July 5,)\u00a0 outgoing Conservative Premier, Rishi Sunak, is expected to resign at Buckingham Palace before the appointment of Starmer by King Charles III<\/strong>. After that, the Labour leader will travel to 10 Downing Street around lunchtime and deliver his first speech as Britain’s new head of government.<\/p>\n

Top leaders of European Union institutions immediately congratulated Starmer, observing the election in the Post-Brexit UK from the outside (for the first time since 1973, when London\u00a0joined the European Economic Community): “I look forward to working with you in a constructive partnership to address common challenges<\/strong> and strengthen European security,” said<\/a>\u00a0EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>. The head of the European Council,\u00a0Charles Michel<\/strong>,\u00a0spoke<\/a> of a “new cycle” and invited the next tenant of Downing Street 10 “European Political Community meeting on 18 July in the UK <\/strong>where we will discuss common challenges, including stability, security, energy, and migration.” The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola,<\/strong> also congratulated<\/a> Starmer, recalling that “the relationship between the EU and the UK is rooted in our shared values and longstanding friendship” and “As allies and partners, it is in our common interest to continue working closely together<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

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\"Rishi<\/a>
Conservative Party leader and outgoing Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak (credits: Temilade Adelaja \/ Pool \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

The other side to the coin of the landslide of Labour seats is a bitter defeat for\u00a0the Tories of outgoing PM Sunak, which collapsed to 121 seats in the House of Commons (-244)<\/strong>. It\u00a0is the worst result in the history of the British Conservatives since\u00a0its founding in 1834 and came after 14 years of government and five\u00a0different cabinets, from David Cameron<\/strong> between 2010 and 2016 to Sunak’s last two years, through Theresa May <\/strong>and Boris Johnson<\/strong>\u00a0when the UK exited from the European Union and\u00a0 Liz Truss (not re-elected yesterday) <\/strong>who lasted just 45 days\u00a0in the fall of 2022. The Conservatives’ almost\u00a0catastrophic result (more than 7 million votes lost since the 2019 victory) can be viewed as\u00a0the epilogue\u00a0of the political suicide for Sunak, who called early elections<\/strong> in late May, even if\u00a0the Tories will still remain the main opposition party to Labour. The real unknown will now be the direction the Conservatives will take, particularly in the face of the wave of\u00a0sovereignists and populists of Reform UK, which won only five seats<\/strong> – including that of their leader and architect of\u00a0Brexit, Farage – but came in third\u00a0in terms of preferences<\/strong>: with 4.1 million votes they rose to third place among parties in the UK.<\/p>\n