Labour victory and SL-UK relations

The concluded British Parliamentary Election brought an end to the 14-year-rule of the Conservative Party while bringing the Labour Party into power with a super majority. The reign of Tories fundamentally changed the dimension of the UK as it coincided with Britain leaving the EU in 2020 consequent to the epic 2016 Brexit referendum. Many feel Britain’s departure from the multilateral political and economic union has reduced its influence in international affairs apart from creating an uncertain outlook for its economy.

The Conservatives suffered a massive defeat with its vote share declining substantially to 23.7% from about 44% at the previous General Election. Their popularity 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 the former premier Liz Truss’ short-sighted tax cuts. The disenchanted Tory voters had moved to the Reform UK – a Right-wing populist political party which is sceptical towards migration and favours low taxes. The anti-EU political party obtained a vote share of 14.3% by making serious inroads into the vote base of Tories.

The victory of Labour was possible due to the marked reconfiguration it underwent in its orientation under the leadership of Keir Starmer – the newly elected British Prime Minister. Starmer ensured his party’s gravitation towards the mainstream of the British political spectrum, representing a distinct departure from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s radical Leftist agenda.

The Election also resulted in the exit of the Conservative MP Liam Fox from the British Parliament, a longstanding ally of Sri Lanka and former Defence Secretary of the UK, who lost his constituency North Somerset after having held the seat continuously from 1992. Compared to Labour, the Conservatives, particularly during the premiership of Late Margaret Thatcher, maintained a highly warm relationship with Colombo. However, in the contemporary times, both main political parties in Britain have been criticised for attempting to penalise the Sri Lankan Government on alleged human right violations committed by the island’s armed forces during the war against Tamil rebels in order to capture the votes of British Tamils.

For decades, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP have enjoyed cordial relations with Tories and the two parties are members of the International Democracy Union – an international alliance of Centre-Right political parties. The outgoing UK Foreign Minister David Cameron and Wickremesinghe know each other well for more than a decade. The former is also a close friend of the President’s long-time advisor Niranjan Deva Aditya, who himself is a former Conservative MP. How would the ties between Colombo and Westminster evolve with the arrival of Labour? Expatriate Tamils based in the UK who are sympathetic towards the LTTE are more supportive towards the Labour. There are two Jaffna-born, Tamil MPs among the victorious Labour MPs. In the past, the UK has been at the forefront in terms of providing leadership to pass resolutions against the island nation in the UNHRC over accountability on human rights allegations. The new Labour Government could aggressively demand Colombo to address the alleged human rights abuses during the war against the LTTE.

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. Two months ago, at an event held in Westminster to commemorate the victims of the war in Sri Lanka, the 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 Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is a beneficiary of the UK’s generous Developing Countries Trading Scheme and the European state is our second largest export market in addition to being a vital source of tourist arrivals. Skilful diplomacy would be required to manage ties with Westminster in the backdrop of the seemingly challenging prospects arising from political changes in the UK.