As in the rest of Western Europe, the far right progresses in the United Kingdom. The British party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, won a partial legislative election in England on Friday and progressed during local elections, managing to set up on the territory to the detriment of Labor in power and the Conservatives.
The results of the local elections on Thursday, which will fall throughout the day of Friday, confirm a fragmentation of the political landscape in the United Kingdom, which had been dominated since the beginning of the 20th century by bipartisme.
“For the movement, for the party, it is a very, very big moment,” said Nigel Farage, the Brexit champion, who campaigned on the fight against irregular immigration.
This victory “proves that we are now the opposition party to the Labor Government,” he proclaimed, after the announcement of the results of the partial legislative in the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby, in the northwest of England.
The “disappointed” Labor Camp
Labor’s defeat is “disappointing”, admitted Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in power since July. The government is determined to go “further and faster” in its reforms, he added.
Reform UK’s candidate Sarah Pochin won with an advance of only six votes on the Labor candidate. But the plowing had won the district with 53 % of the votes in July, far ahead of Reform at 18 %.
According to the first results of local elections, Reform also won three regional councils and mayor’s headquarters for the first time. Labor have won three mayor’s seats out of the six subject to the vote. The conservatives won one.
A total of 1,641 seats within local authorities is to be filled, a small share of the 17,000 seats of local advisers throughout England.
Reform UK, a threat to Labor
These first results represent “bad news for the two major parties,” said political scientist Anand Menon. “It is a trend similar to that observed in Western Europe, where the big parties lose voices. And politics becomes very, very fragmented, ”he underlines. According to Anand Menon, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats could also win victories during the day. But “in terms of electoral results today, Reform UK seems to be a greater threat to plowing than any other party”.
These elections were the first ballot in England since the coming to power of the Labor Party (center left). The popularity of Keir Starmer has plunged into polls: he is accused of not having succeeded in rectifying the economy and his government was strongly criticized for having suppressed social assistance.
These polls are also a test for the leader of the Tories Kemi Badenoch, arrived at the end of last year at the head of the Conservative Party, after the debacle in the July legislative elections. “The renewal of our party has just started,” she said on Friday, admitting that these elections had been “very difficult” for the conservatives.
Under the electoral system in a turn that promotes major parties, Labor won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in July, but with only 33.7 % of the vote. Or the lowest proportion for a party winning legislative elections since the Second World War. The conservatives had obtained 24 % of the votes and 121 seats, their worst electoral defeat of all time.
Reform UK had won 14 % of the votes and five seats (then raised to 4 after the dismissal of a Reform deputy and then again 5 with the victory of Friday), an unprecedented result for an extreme right party in the United Kingdom. The Liberal Democrats had won 61 more deputies compared to the previous election, and the Greens had gone from one to four elected officials.
