Michael Lambert: Starmer & Labour Face an Impossible Challenge in Trying to Clear Up the Mess Left by the Tories

Jul 7, 2024 | Last week saw the general election in which Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives were beaten by the Labour Party under Keir Starmer.

Under the First Past The Post system, Labour won 411 seats with just 34% of votes cast and with a turnout of just 60%.

The government now faces an almost impossible set of challenges. Starmer says he will re-negotiate our deal with the EU, will do away with 'red tape' hindering trade with the EU and that he will finance the many areas that are starved of cash by growing the economy. He has also stated recently that the UK will never return to EU membership in his lifetime.

Lib Dems Oust Four Cabinet Ministers as They Win Record Number of Seats

THE GUARDIAN: With all but a handful of results declared, party’s tally stands at 71, beating its previous record of 62 in 2005

The Liberal Democrats have taken a record number of seats for the party in the general election.

Ed Davey’s party has ousted four cabinet ministers and denied the Tories success in constituencies once held by former prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

With 641 results declared, the Lib Dems’ tally stood at 71, beating the party’s previous record of 62 under Charles Kennedy’s leadership in 2005.

In early results, the Lib Dems ousted Gillian Keegan, the education secretary – her Chichester seat had a 21,500 majority in 2019 and had been held by the Conservatives for a century – and Alex Chalk, the justice secretary.

By Friday morning, the party had won 71 seats, with only a handful to be declared making it their highest total since 1923, when they were just the Liberal party led by Herbert Asquith.

Speaking after winning his Kingston and Surbiton seat again by more than 17,000 votes, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said many voters had turned to his party for the first time to be their “champions”. » | Peter Walker, Senior political correspondent | Friday, July 5, 2024

Liz Truss Caps List of High-Profile Conservative Seat Losses

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Ms. Truss, who was forced out as prime minister after 49 chaotic days, lost by 630 votes in a district she previously held by more than 26,000.

Liz Truss, the former Conservative Party prime minister, lost her seat Friday morning. Following a chaotic 49-day premiership in 2022, which sent mortgage rates soaring, the pound tumbling and required an intervention by the central bank to calm markets, she has been ousted from Parliament.

Five years ago, she won a majority of more than 26,000. This time, she lost by 630 votes, a huge swing in support to the Labour Party.

She told the BBC that the reason the Conservatives lost was because “we haven’t delivered sufficiently on the policies people want,” such as keeping taxes low and reducing immigration. She said she agreed that she was part of the group in power that had failed to deliver these changes but laid the blame on the inheritance the party received in 2010, not herself.

“During our 14 years in power, unfortunately, we did not do enough to take on the legacy we’d been left,” she said.

But Ms. Truss is just one of many prominent Conservative lawmakers to lose their seats, including recent members of the cabinet. Others include: » | Eshe Nelson, Reporting from London | Friday, July 5, 2024

Labour Wins UK General Election with Keir Starmer to Be Next Prime Minister | BBC News

Jul 5, 2024 | Labour has officially won the 2024 general election after reaching the required 326 seats.

Speaking in central London, the next prime minister Keir Starmer says "change begins now". "It feels good, I have to be honest," he tells a cheering crowd. He adds that the task of a Labour government is "nothing less than renewing the ideas that hold our country together".

Disastrous Poll Ratings: Is Sunak Responsible? | DW News

Jul 3, 2024 | UK voters to deliver a verdict on 14 years of government by the center-right Conservative Party. All polls point to deep dissatisfaction with the current government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and predict a strong win for Keir Starmer’s center-left Labour Party in tomorrow's parliamentary elections.

Young People Demand Change Ahead of Britain’s Election

Many young people feel disillusioned by politics in the United Kingdom, as the country readies for a pivotal general election after 14 years of Conservative governments. Megan Specia, an international correspondent for The New York Times based in London, spoke with young voters in the northern English cities of Liverpool and Manchester to hear their perspectives on the election.
Watch the video here ».

Question Time | Election Leaders' Special | 20th June 2024 (Day 29)

Jun 21, 2024 | With just two weeks until the general election, Fiona Bruce presents a special two-hour edition of Question Time. The four leaders from the country’s biggest political parties will each face 30 minutes of questions from an audience of voters in York. That’s Rishi Sunak, prime minister and Conservative leader, Sir Keir Starmer, who leads Labour, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, and the Scottish National Party leader John Swinney MSP.

Copyright (C) BBC, BBC News, BBC One, BBC Worldwide, 2024. If you would like me to remove this video, please contact me, not YouTube.


Should you wish to do so, you can donate to the YouTube channel, Political TV, here.

I Went Looking for the Few Remaining Tory Voters. They Don’t Want Farage, but They Don’t Want Sunak either

THE GUARDIAN – OPINION: Even lifelong Conservative voters seem tired of the Tories. Signs are pointing to a total party collapse

Who are the people who will still vote Tory? True, there are not many left, but a solid core of 20% of the population will opt for more of the same, the lowest percentage in polling history, says Prof John Curtice. That many still seem willing to re-elect those who did such national damage is, to put it politely, perplexing.

Do they really back the exceptionally mean-spirited and squalid bribery of their party’s prospectus? Well, the great majority have better things to do than read manifestos. But go out and talk to ordinary Tory voters and you find their state of mind out of tune with their party’s hierarchy. That’s why most traditional Tories have fled, ignored by the manifesto writers who press on with deeper cuts to collapsing public services, adding to the 4.3 million children going hungry. » | Polly Toynbee | Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Any party that allows children to be raised in poverty, regardless of the party’s political stripe or hue, deserves to go the way of the dodo. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing the nation’s children to go hungry in this day and age. None whatsoever! If the Tories are able to look after their superrich buddies and chums — and they have a long history of doing that — then they are jolly well able to look after the nation’s children, too. The time has come for the Tories to be taught a painful lesson! — © Mark Alexander

The Tories Are Losing ‘Pretty Much Everywhere’ | Peter Kellner

Jun 16, 2024 | “The biggest casualty by far would be Jeremy Hunt.” Just three cabinet members are likely to keep their seats in the general election according to today’s polls, says journalist and pollster Peter Kellner.

Michael Lambert: Everyone Knows Rishi Sunak Is Finished

Jun 12, 2024 | At Silverstone motor racing track yesterday, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, launched the Conservative Party manifesto. It featured tax cuts and spending which is to be funded by government efficiency, cracking down on tax evasion and a squeeze on benefit claimants together with growing the economy. Immigration is to be substantially reduced depriving the UK economy of essential workers.

The Spanish government has built a high speed railway from Barcelona to Madrid at a cost of less than one tenth of the cost per mile of HS2.

The CEO of South West Water has received a rise of £300,000 per annum taking her annual income to £860,000. The company lost £9 million last year and yet went ahead with dividends of £127 million.

A driver bringing plants into the UK from Italy was kept waiting for 55 hours at the government border check facility at Sevington in Kent.


Poor ol’ Rishi! One can but wonder whether, at this stage, he would be willing to trade in some of his vast riches for some common sense and a good dose of political savvy? – © Mark Alexander

Liz Webster: "Carry On" Conservative Calamity

Jun 11, 2024 | “The genera lelection campaign for Sunak and the Tories is like something off the Benny Hill Show’.

Could the Lib Dems Really Deliver Their Manifesto? | Election 2024 | The New Statesman

Jun 10, 2024 | Is Ed Davey making election pledges that he knows he'll never have to deliver?

Related article »

Lib Dems Launch Election Manifesto with Pledge to ‘Save the NHS’

THE GUARDIAN: Party presents ‘fully costed plan to tackle the healthcare crisis from top to bottom’, including guarantees on GPs and dentists and free-to-access social care

The Liberal Democrats have become the first of the big parties to launch their election manifesto, with a pitch to voters based on boosting the NHS and social care.

They also said that – unlike those of Labour and the Tories – their plans were fully costed.

Speaking at a glitzy launch event in north London, the party’s leader, Ed Davey, told voters that electing enough Lib Dem MPs would bring “a strong liberal voice pushing for these policies” and could make a notable difference even with an expected Labour majority.

The 116-page manifesto has been launched alongside a costings document, which pledges increased capital gains tax for very wealthy people, plus new levies on aviation, energy companies and banks.

Davey said this would pay for policies particularly focused on health and care, including guarantees about seeing GPs and dentists, free-to-access social care and more mental health support. » | Peter Walker and Pippa Crerar | Monday, June 10, 2024

The Observer View on D-day Furore: Rishi Sunak Is Driving Tories over an Electoral Cliff Edge

THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: Prime minister’s gaffe was a defining moment in his campaign symbolising a party that does not know what it stands for and has nothing to offer

‘As we gather here today, it is not just to honour those who showed such remarkable bravery on that day … it’s to listen to the echoes of their voices, to hear them, because they are summoning us.” So President Joe Biden movingly told the international D-day commemoration ceremony at Omaha beach in Normandy on Thursday. But Rishi Sunak was not there to listen alongside Britain’s wartime allies. Instead, he had departed France after taking part in the British commemoration earlier in the day, returning to the UK to do an election interview with ITV, leaving the foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, to represent Britain in his place.

This will prove to be a defining moment of this general election campaign, because it tells us something fundamental about the man who, having been chosen to lead the country by his party a year and a half ago, is for the first time seeking a mandate from the electorate. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, June 9, 2024

Michael Lambert: Sunak's Disastrous Election Campaign Continues with Multiple Errors and Mishaps

June 8, 2024 | One of Rishi Sunak's former teachers at Winchester College claimed that Rishi Sunak never believed in Brexit and that he supported it in order to advance his own career.

Since announcing the General Election 2024 just over two weeks ago, Sunak has been involved in multiple gaffs and mistakes. From his rain-soaked announcement in Downing Street to multiple bad photo opportunities and appearing before the Titanic Museum, things have gone from bad to worse for Sunak.

Yesterday, he left the D-Day ceremonies in France early, where international leaders were present, to return London to be interviewed by ITV for a programme to be broadcast in two weeks’ time. This offended just about everyone and Sunak was forced to make a humiliating public apology.

“Dark Day for Everyone Who Believes in Justice”: UK Tories Defeat Labour in Landslide Election

The British Conservative Party has won a decisive majority in Thursday’s general election, winning seats in Labour Party strongholds and paving the way for Britain’s exit from the European Union by January 31. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is projected to have 364 seats in the House of Commons compared to Labour’s 203 seats. That would give the Conservatives about a 75-seat majority, the largest since Margaret Thatcher’s landslide in the 1987 election. Johnson’s message throughout the campaign was focused on “getting Brexit done,” reflecting public exhaustion with the issue that has paralyzed British politics ever since the 2016 referendum. His win comes despite his long record of racist and anti-Muslim statements, as well as accusations of sexual harassment. Following the election, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn announced he will resign as party leader, though he will continue to sit as an MP. The Labour membership grew dramatically during Corbyn’s tenure, with the party adopting radical policies focused on ending austerity, reinvesting in the National Health Service and promoting social justice. We get response from George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian and author of “Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis,” and Priya Gopal, university lecturer in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge and author of the new book “Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent.”

Exit Poll Predicts 86-seat Majority for Boris Johnson and Conservatives

THE GUARDIAN: PM set for return to Downing Street with 368 seats for the Tories and 191 for Labour

Boris Johnson appears on course to secure a crushing majority of 86, and take Britain out of the EU in January, after a shock exit poll showed his party would win 368 seats in Thursday’s general election.

That would be the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher’s third general election in 1987; and mark a dramatic repudiation of Jeremy Corbyn’s offer of “real change” for Britain.

If the poll is vindicated as real results come in, the Conservatives will have smashed through the “red wall” of Labour-held seats across Wales and the Midlands, many of which voted leave in the 2016 EU referendum.

The exit poll, which is compiled on the basis of a large-scale survey of 20,000 voters as they leave polling stations, put the Tories on 368 seats seats, and Labour on just 191.

That would allow Johnson to pass his Brexit deal early in the new year, so that Britain would formally leave the EU in January. » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Thursday, December 12, 2019

'Brutal, Packed with Untruths, Uninspiring': European Press on UK Election

THE GUARDIAN: Socialism or Brexit? Britain is divided in two in a ‘Hamlet-like dilemma’, write Europe’s newspapers

France

France’s media have been following the UK election campaign closely and did not take long to draw their conclusions. “Boris Johnson: the liar weakening Europe,” was the splash in Le Parisien, a popular tabloid, last month.

The paper called the prime minister “Europe’s bogeyman”, a politician for whom “pretty much everything is either an empty promise, economical with the truth or a downright lie.” » | Jon Henley, Philip Oltermann, Sam Jones, Andrew Roth and Angela Giuffrida | Thursday, December 12, 2019

"I'm Angry and Worried": Hugh Grant's Concern If Tories Win Election

Hugh Grant told James O'Brien that the prospect of the Conservatives winning the general election is "very dark and very scary". The ‘Love Actually’ star has been campaigning over the last few weeks to encourage people to vote tactically and ignore their tribal loyalties.

Speaking to James O'Brien, he said he's never really got involved in elections before, but he is extremely concerned about a Tory win. He said: "I feel like a Coke can that's been rolling around the bottom of the car for too long and someone needs to pull the ring. "I'm just angry. I'm angry and worried."

Can Boris Johnson Lie His Way Back Into Office?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Britons face a miserable set of choices.

LONDON — This is the dejection election. Not in my lifetime has Britain faced such a miserable choice. Two vain, incompetent, mediocre charlatans are competing to become prime minister. For the Conservatives, we have the blustering, lying, oafish puffball Boris Johnson. In the Labour corner is the querulous, wooden, sanctimonious Jeremy Corbyn.

The two candidates are so alarming that, in an unprecedented intervention, former prime ministers from each of their parties have pleaded with voters to block them. Tony Blair and John Major have urged tactical votes against Mr. Corbyn and Mr. Johnson. Everywhere, exhausted, disillusioned, skeptical voters debate who is worse. British politics has never known anything like it.

These very different men share remarkable, unflattering similarities. Each is ill briefed, hazy on the facts and implications of his policy proposals, uneasy under scrutiny and belligerent when challenged. » | Jenni Russell, Contributing Opinion Writer | Wednesday, December 11, 2019