(London) On the eve of the British general election, the Labour Party seems more than ever destined for victory on Wednesday, leading the polls and now supported by the powerful tabloid The Suna first for Labour since Tony Blair.
After six weeks of campaigning, and 14 years of Conservative power during which five prime ministers succeeded one another, four of whom had to resign, the United Kingdom is expected to swing to the centre-left on Thursday, with Keir Starmer as head of government.
“The time for change has come”, “the time for Labour has come”, states the newspaper, owned by the family of Australian-American billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who has taken decisive positions in the past, in a column published on its website on Wednesday.
The tabloid had swung to Labour in 1997, when Tony Blair won the election after 18 years in opposition, and swung back to the Conservatives to support David Cameron in 2010.
But despite its rather right-wing editorials, it was difficult for the popular newspaper to ignore the change of era that is coming and the rout announced for the Tories led by Rishi Sunak.
“Super majority”
A few hours before the opening of the polling stations, the game seems to be over.
Conservative heavyweights, led by Rishi Sunak, have been reduced to imploring voters not to give Labour a “super majority” in the House of Commons.
PHOTO CLAUDIA GRECO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak
“We are probably on the eve of the biggest tidal wave [travailliste] “We have never seen the greatest economic crisis in this country,” Labour Secretary Mel Stride, a pillar of Rishi Sunak’s campaign, admitted on Times Radio.
“It’s over, and we must prepare ourselves for the reality and the frustration of the opposition,” former Interior Minister Suella Braverman wrote in the Telegraph.
Even the surprise involvement of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the campaign on Tuesday evening at a Conservative election rally in London does not appear likely to move the needle.
“If you really want higher taxes […] “If you want uncontrolled immigration and if you want unnecessary kowtowing to Brussels, vote for Labour on Thursday,” threatened the former leader, on bad terms with the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but who remains appreciated by part of the base.
Change
After difficult years in which the British have experienced Brexit, economic and social crisis, COVID-19, scandals and political instability, voters seem to yearn for only one thing: change.
They are prepared to give a chance to Keir Starmer, a dour and little-known 61-year-old Labour man, a former human rights lawyer and then attorney general who was elected as an MP only nine years ago.
He is expected to become prime minister, a post that goes to the leader of the political party that wins the majority of the 650 seats at stake in the single-round, first-past-the-post election.
Keir Starmer, who has sought to project an image of seriousness and firmness, particularly fiscal and economic, after having refocused his party without qualms, has already warned that he does not have a “magic wand”.
But this man of modest origins, son of a toolmaker and a nurse, speaks of integrity, of the sense of service in politics. “The country first, the party second,” he repeats regularly.
“We will not have a grace period,” he admitted to reporters on Wednesday on the plane back from Scotland. “We will start immediately,” he added, already looking ahead to the post-election period.
Farage in ambush
Among the major concerns of voters are the economy, the deterioration of the public health service and immigration.
The nationalist party Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage, who is trying for the eighth time to be elected as an MP, has made this last subject its main hobby horse, linking to it all the ills from which the United Kingdom suffers, such as the lack of housing, the difficulty in obtaining medical care and the absence of work for some young people.
PHOTO PAUL ELLIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Nigel Farage, leader of the nationalist Reform UK party
A true tribune, he entered the race last month, immediately boosting voting intentions for his party, which is now hot on the heels of the conservatives and has even overtaken them in some polls.
Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister for 20 months, has made every effort to avoid the disaster predicted for his party.
He promised tax cuts, better days, and tried until the end to win over voters wavering between Reform UK and the Conservative Party in constituencies where the election will be close.