Fri, May 05, 2023 page7

• UK’s Sunak facing first date with English voters

  • AFP, LONDON
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  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives yesterday braced for heavy losses in their first major electoral test since he became the UK’s third leader within a few chaotic weeks last year.

  In the depths of the UK’s worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, the local council elections across England were to shed light on the main parties’ standing ahead of a UK-wide general election expected next year.

  At the last parliamentary clash before polls opened at 7am, opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer on Wednesday pressed on Tory wounds after the party ditched former British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in quick succession last year.

  

  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, center, visits a community group at the Chiltern leisure centre in Amersham, England, on Wednesday.

  Photo: REUTERS

  Nearly 2 million Britons would end up paying more on their home loans “because his party used their money as a casino chip,” Starmer told Sunak, referring to Truss’ disastrous tenure, when financial markets tanked.

  In national polls, Labour has built a double-digit percentage lead over the Conservatives, and is treating the municipal elections as a referendum on Tory rule.

  Sunak tried to recast the elections — for more than 8,000 council seats across 230 English districts — back on to local issues.

  In contrast to Labour’s focus on “broken promises,” Sunak said: “We’re getting on with delivering what we say with lower council tax, lower crime and fewer potholes” on roads.

  He also defended a change introduced by his government for the local elections that requires voters to show photo identification for the first time, a move denounced by Labour as an attempt to suppress the vote.

  Surveys suggest that voters are deeply worried about double-digit percentage inflation and the crisis engulfing Britain’s National Health Service, as doctors and nurses strike for better pay.

  Labour is making progress toward recapturing its former strongholds in northern England, which Johnson turned Tory in the 2019 general election on a vow to “get Brexit done.”

  London is not voting this time, but the centrist Liberal Democrats are targeting Conservative districts on the edge of the capital, including in British parliamentary constituencies represented by members of Sunak’s Cabinet.

  Overall, the worst-case scenario given by pollsters is for the Conservatives to lose 1,000 council seats across the areas of England that were voting yesterday.

  Sunak’s party said that anything less than 1,000 lost seats would amount to a win, wile Labour and the Liberal Democrats were also managing expectations for their likely successes.

  The prime minister on Wednesday told lawmakers that his party was in for a “hard night,” but added that “I do believe we’re making good progress,” the Daily Telegraph reported.

  Local elections in Britain tend to have low turnout, and public uncertainty about the new voter ID requirement could depress it further.

  Results would take shape only over the course of today and in the succeeding days — as the UK is to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III tomorrow.

  However, voters assembled in one pre-election focus group had a damning verdict on the Conservatives, even if Sunak tends to poll better personally.

  Asked by the think tank More in Common to describe the state of Britain in one word, the focus group’s answers included “broken,” “shambles,” “mess,” “struggling” and “crisis.”
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