London Roughly a year before the UK general election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Keir Starmer exchanged political blows in Westminster. Both politicians tried to get voters on their side shortly before three important by-elections for the House of Commons on Thursday. They accused each other of breaking important campaign promises.
In the House of Commons debate, Starmer held the plight of the NHS state health system before the prime minister, with almost 7.5 million patients waiting for hospital treatment. At the beginning of the year, Sunak promised to reduce the waiting list quickly and significantly. “Another broken promise,” the opposition leader and Labor Party leader taunted at the final session before the parliamentary summer recess.
Sunak countered by pointing out that Starmer had just changed its line on child support and now, like the Conservative government, supports a limit on state aid to two children. “He (Starmer) never kept any promises he made,” the PM said.
In fact, the Labor leader is also being heavily criticized within his own party for the change of course. The background to the change of heart is Starmer’s effort to rid his party of the image of allegedly promising unaffordable social benefits. He also recently expressed doubts about the plan to invest £28 billion a year in green technology if Labor wins the election.
Starmer’s change of image also includes his appearance this week with former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is persona non grata on the party left for his military support for the Iraq invasion. Starmer, on the other hand, wants to repeat Blair’s 1997 electoral success next year. In his opinion, this not only includes a solid financial policy, but also a clear demarcation from the policies of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn from the left wing.
Three parliamentary seats have to be filled
The by-elections on Thursday are an important mood test, especially for the conservatives. In the three constituencies of Uxbridge & South Ruislip near London, Sommerton & Frome in the South West and Selby & Ainsty in the North East of England voters will have to re-establish seats in Parliament previously held by Tories.
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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned from Uxbridge in June after a parliamentary committee accused him of lying to the House of Commons. Conservative MP Steve Brine says the Tories are still suffering from “Long Boris” – a nod to the Johnson-era scandal known as “Partygate” during the pandemic.
In Sommerton, Conservative MP David Warburton has been forced to resign after being accused of sexual harassment and drug abuse. And in Selby, Johnson confidante Nigel Adams resigned after being denied the peerage of lord.
According to the latest opinion polls, the Tories could lose all three seats to either Labor or the Liberal Democrats, putting further pressure on party leader Sunak. That would not endanger the Conservatives’ majority of around 60 seats in the lower house. But the loss of three former strongholds would add to the already depressed mood among many Tories.
Nationally, the Conservatives are about 20 percentage points behind Labor in opinion polls. Even among his party friends, Sunak has lost his early luster as a doer and is viewed negatively by the majority.
There are similarities between Sunak’s and Starmer’s visions
In addition to reducing hospital waiting lists, Sunak made four other promises by which the British should measure his government work at the beginning of the year.
At the top is a commitment to halve stubbornly high inflation in the UK. Although the inflation rate fell below eight percent in June for the first time since March 2022, Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the prime minister will still have “difficulties” in keeping his promise. For this to happen, inflation would have to fall to 5.35 percent by December.
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His other two business promises will continue to haunt the prime minister: he wants to put the British economy on a growth course. However, Great Britain stagnated in the first quarter with a minimal increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.1 percent. The announced reduction in government debt is also a long time coming. In May, the mountain of debt rose to 100 percent of GDP for the first time in 62 years.
For Sunak, there was at least political progress with the promise to stop the boat people illegally entering the English Channel. The new immigration law, which provides for deportation to countries like Rwanda in addition to quick internment, was passed by the House of Lords with few changes. Nevertheless, almost 13,000 refugees reached the English coast by the beginning of July. In the whole of last year there were 45,755.
At the beginning of the year, Sunak made five promises against which the British should measure his government work.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
Comparing Sunak’s five pledges with the five ‘missions’ that Starmer used to outline the policy of a future Labor government, there are some surprising similarities. The leader of the opposition also wants to boost economic growth “sustainably” and make Great Britain the growth leader among the G7 countries. However, the fact that he has just trimmed his party’s green investment program casts doubt not only on his promise of growth, but also on the announcement that he will transform the kingdom into a “clean energy superpower”.
Above all, Starmer wants to counteract the misery in the state health system with new hires and further training. He also relies on the help of private providers. Otherwise, his goals for health care remain just as vague as for education, where he wants to reduce social inequality. In May, however, Starmer questioned the once-promised abolition of tuition fees.
The former public prosecutor, on the other hand, becomes clearer when it comes to internal security. Similar to financial policy, he sees an image problem for Labor here, which he wants to remedy by announcing that the high number of crimes will be halved and the police better equipped.
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