Labour poised to capture power in Britain

The British Parliamentary Election will be held on 4 July and the Labour Party is widely expected to emerge victorious, ending the 14-year rule of the Conservative Party. This year’s General Election in the UK has special significance as it the first national election to be held subsequent to Britain formally leaving the European Union in 2020. 

The Conservatives have been in power since 2010 and its popularity has reached rock bottom due to a multiplicity of reasons such as anti-incumbency, poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the economic instability caused by former premier Liz Truss’ short-sighted tax cuts. The approach of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson – who was holding office during the COVID-related period – in responding to the pandemic had been described as dangerous while critics had alleged his constant indecision made it impossible to tackle the virus successfully. Johnson was severely admonished for holding a birthday bash and other events at the height of the pandemic, in contravention of the social-distancing restrictions, when the rest of the British population was subject to stringent lockdown measures. The fallout from the COVID-related failures culminated in the resignation of Johnson, who was replaced by Liz Truss. 

Upon becoming Premier, Truss proposed a mini budget – which was similar to the lopsided tax cuts introduced by former President Gotabaya in late 2019 – that outlined a range of tax reductions such as bringing forward the planned cut in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% and abolishing the highest (45%) rate of income tax among others. In the aftermath of the irresponsible tax cuts, the value of Sterling Pound reached an all-time low against the dollar, dropping to $ 1.0327, the lowest since 1971. The turbulence in financial markets together with the massive adverse publicity for the unfunded tax cuts resulted in Truss having to announce resignation from premiership within 50 days from assuming office. The debacle by the Truss administration dented the standing of Tories and their poll numbers nosedived.

Meanwhile, under the leadership of Keir Starmer, who is widely expected to become the next Premier of Britain, the Labour Party has gone through a marked reconfiguration in its orientation and has moved back to the mainstream of British political spectrum. During the reign of Starmer’s predecessor – Jeremy Corbyn – the Labour drifted to the extreme Left and it substantially diluted the prospects of the party winning national elections. 

Nevertheless, a victory for the Labour would not be favourable to Colombo. Expatriate Tamils based in the UK who are sympathetic towards the LTTE are more supportive towards the Labour. Colombo has accused British politicians of attempting to penalise the Sri Lankan Government on alleged human right violations committed by the armed forces during the war against Tamil rebels in order to capture the votes of British Tamils. It might be recalled that Foreign Secretary David Miliband of the then Labour administration travelled to Sri Lanka during the final stages of the Army’s offensive against Tamil Tigers and pressurised the Government to go for a ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers.

In 2022, Starmer urged the British Government to refer perpetrators of atrocities during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war to the International Criminal Court. Last month, at an event held in Westminster to commemorate the victims of the war in Sri Lanka, Labour leader stressed on the Sri Lankan Government’s failure to fulfil the promises made to the international community regarding accountability for the alleged mass atrocity crimes suffered by the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The UK is an important trade partner of Sri Lanka, and the island is a beneficiary of its generous Developing Countries Trading Scheme. In the backdrop of some Labour MPs having recently called for trade sanctions against Sri Lanka, it would be intriguing to observe how the relations between the two states would evolve under a Labour administration.