It is heading towards the electoral defeat of all time for the conservative party. Rishi Sunak is fighting a seemingly impossible battle, leading a party in deep crisis. When he moved into Downing Street just over a year and a half ago, it was after first Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss had done everything they could to destroy the credibility of the party and the government. The first through partygate, the second with his so-called mini-budget which suddenly threw the British economy into the deep end. Sunak was popular as finance minister during the pandemic, but has been an unpopular prime minister. There were many who rolled their eyes when he chose to call an election half a year before the deadline expired, when both he and the party were in dire straits in the opinion polls. From there it only went downhill. In this case, you can read about the ruling party’s election campaign blunders: The first picture It rained when Sunak surprisingly announced at the end of May that the British election would be held on 4 July. He chose to hold the press conference outdoors. Without an umbrella. Photo: BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP Because Sunak is a very rich man, it would perhaps look bad if someone had held an umbrella over him and his lectern. It is important for a politician to appear as one of the people, not as an upper-class snob who does not understand how ordinary people feel. But a picture is worth a thousand words, and the picture of a soaking wet prime minister in nitristic weather doesn’t exactly mean that this man and this government are your best future. And for anyone who also heard the sound, it didn’t help that Sunak was almost drowned out by the song Things Can Only Get Better, which was played to a full crowd outside Downing Street. It was the opposition Labor party’s election campaign song back in 1997, when the party won a landslide election with Tony Blair at the helm. Things Can Only Get Wetter, wrote John Crace in The Guardian, calling the election a kick-start for Rishi Sunak’s farewell tour. The second picture The following day, the election campaign began in earnest. Sunak had the upper hand, as his party was the only one that knew in advance when the election would come. But little indication of detailed planning. Because what does a picture of Sunak under an Exit sign actually communicate? Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS / AP And shouldn’t he have foreseen that a visit to Belfast’s Titanic Quarter would lead to questions about whether he is the captain of a sinking ship? The sequel was no better. Allegation of a lie In the first debate of the election campaign, Sunak appeared on the offensive. He lashed out at Labour’s leader and prime ministerial candidate Keir Starmer. Everything to gain, nothing to lose, he might have thought. But it didn’t end well. The conservative party has been a stable 20 percentage points below Labor in the opinion polls ever since Sunak took over as party leader and prime minister. Surveys that count the number of seats in parliament show an even bleaker picture for the ruling party. One of them shows that the party risks going from 345 seats at the last election to just 66 in this one. There is talk of an extinction of what has been the dominant party in British politics in modern times. Photo: Jonathan Hordle/ITV / Reuters Perhaps that was the reason why Sunak hammered away in the debate with claims that Labor in power means a tax increase per household of close to NOK 25,000 annually. He said the figure was calculated by independent finance ministry bureaucrats. It didn’t add up. Sunak received a reprimand from the Public Statistics Authority. Labor called him a liar. Father Farage One of the reasons why Sunak chose to call an election earlier than necessary may have been that he wanted to take the opposition to bed. Not only the main competitor Labour, but also the Reform UK party which threatens the Conservatives from the right. Brexit general and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage was the party’s honorary president. A few days into the election campaign, he ruled out running as a candidate for the party. Everything seemed to be going as Sunak had hoped. But then Farage suddenly changed his mind. Photo: Maja Smiejkowska / Reuters Not only is Farage standing as a candidate for parliament; he also took over the leadership of the Reform Party. Farage has a longer tenure, and is for many voters a better-known politician than both Sunak and Starmer. Although he has tried to be elected to the House of Commons seven times before without success, his return to British top politics is a threat to Prime Minister Sunak and his party. Nigel Farage masters the art of communication better than most. He can twist his way in the media image, and loves to flirt with voters in a way many surely envy him. He is stealing votes from the Conservative Party in particular and Reform UK is growing in the polls. Farage himself says that it is certain that Labor will win the election, and justifies his choice to run with the fact that he will be a strong and clear opposition to Labor in parliament. Contrary to what he thinks the conservatives can manage. But the ambitions go further than that. He has said that he will take over the Conservative Party after the election, which Conservative Party members also fear. The third picture – without Sunak Then came D-Day. The actual D-Day, 80 years after WWII. Sunak was in place in France, together with other international political figures. It was just that Sunak chose to go home before the event was over. Thus, it was Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister David Cameron who was pictured chatting with Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz on Omaha beach in Normandy. Not the man who wants to be re-elected as British Prime Minister. Not the one who needed a lift, a moment where he could appear as a statesman before the eyes of the whole world. Not least for British voters. Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP No, Sunak went back to the UK without explanation, while Labour’s prime ministerial candidate secured a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj. The first thing Sunak did on his return to the UK was to give an interview which was not published until many days later. He then apologized. His party colleagues also had to do that. Again and again. Criticism grew. No one could understand that a party leader of a patriotic party could let the war veterans down like that. Or that it was possible from a communication perspective to opt out of such a moment in the middle of an election campaign. The betting scandal The run-up to the election campaign has been marked by a scandal linked to the British tradition of betting on everything between heaven and earth. Every self-respecting town in Britain has a betting shop. They suddenly had more to do just before Rishi Sunak surprisingly announced that the election would be held on July 4. During the penultimate week of the election campaign, it became clear that at least five of the Conservative Party’s candidates or employees are being investigated for what they knew about the election timing when they – before Sunak’s wet advertising in May – bet that the election would come this summer. Among them is the party’s election campaign manager and his wife. The wife is standing as a candidate for parliament. It took many days from the revelations to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to suspend his wife and another parliamentary candidate from the Conservative Party. He must endure strong criticism for not dissociating himself more clearly and earlier from the fact that party members may have tried to enrich themselves with the help of inside information. A Labor representative is also being investigated for having bet that he himself will lose the election. He was immediately suspended from the party. Six weeks of an election campaign is a relatively long time in the British context. Especially downhill. Photo: Kin Cheung / AP Published 07/03/2024, at 12.15
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The Tories fail in the British election. Does Sunak have to go? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
