Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer has threatened to break the deck and force early elections in the UK. Starmer has assured that his party will table a motion of no confidence in Parliament if the Conservative Party does not evict Boris Johnson from Downing Street next week.
The ‘premier’ follows sheltered in his decision to stay at least until September, when the ‘tories’ have chosen his successor. Most of the conservative deputies seem resigned to accept his plan, while the first candidates for succession took positions this Friday.
Former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak, 42, has grabbed all the limelight with the announcement of his candidacy “to restore confidence, rebuild the economy and reunite the country.” In advance, the attorney general, Suella Braverman, the former Brexit minister Steve Baker and the president of the parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs, Tom Tugendhat, did so.
Meanwhile, the crisis triggered by the Chris Pincher sex scandal and the resignation of Boris Johnson has led to a collapse in the Conservative Party, eleven points behind the Labor Party (29% to 40%) in the recent YouGov poll. , the largest difference in the last six months.
The informational pendulum has swung this Friday to the side of Labor, also driven by the decision of the Durham police not to fine Keir Starmer and his “number two” Angela Rayner for their participation in a campaign event on April 30 from 2021, when the Covid restrictions were in force. Both Starmer and Rayner had announced that they would resign if they were fined for the scandal baptized as the ‘Beergate’ (because of the photo in which he was seen with a glass of beer).
“I knew we hadn’t broken the rules and for me it was always a matter of principle, honesty and integrity,” said Starmer, who took the opportunity to position himself as a real alternative to Boris Johnson. “That’s what the British will get from me.”
Shortly after, the Labor leader called on the media to claim prominence amid the feeling of chaos created by Johnson’s resignation as Conservative leader and his determination to continue as acting ‘premier’ for at least two months.
“The contrast could not be greater with the ‘tories’, in full internal struggle and with their list of candidates who propelled for months a prime minister who they themselves knew was not qualified,” said Starmer. “We are united and prepared… Let’s have a general election, let’s change the government and give the country the possibility of a new beginning.”
Starmer has even confessed his willingness to make a post-election pact with the Liberal-Democratic Party and has sent a very direct message to British voters: “I am not perfect and I will make mistakes, but I am someone who believes in honesty and integrity, someone who will work every day for the good of the country and who will not betray the faith you place in me.
The Labor leader has left the door open to two possible courses of action as of Monday: a specific vote in the House of Commons to force Boris Johnson out of Downing Street, or a motion of no confidence that, in the case of achieving a majority could lead to the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of early elections.
To achieve his goal, however, he would have to count on the vote of dozens of conservative “rebels.” In the last few hours, and despite John Major’s public call to relieve Johnson and appoint an interim ‘premier’, the ‘tories’ seem to be willing to delay his departure. The 1922 Parliamentary Committee will make the calendar public on Monday, with the goal of speeding up the procedures and anticipating, in any case, the election of the successor, possibly in mid-August.
In his new role as acting ‘premier’, Johnson has chaired the cabinet of ministers with new additions to cover the more than 50 resignations in a chain throughout this week. James Cleverly, as the new Secretary of Education, and Greg Clark, as Secretary of “Economic Leveling”.
Johnson has confirmed that he will not promote new political measures in the transition period, although in some sectors of the party there is fear that he will stand out with some Donald Trump-style “disruption” or some rude gesture towards his party. In his resignation speech, he criticized the “herd instinct” of the Conservatives and stressed to the British how he had resisted resigning because of his electoral commitment and the complex international situation.
In the Conservative Party, fears are also growing that Johnson’s succession will degenerate into a battle that will bring to light the internal fractures of the party and will not be able to produce a leader with sufficient electoral pull. Rishi Sunak was, until a few months ago, the favorite alternative among ‘Tory’ voters, but his popular valuation has been greatly diminished by the lack of action in the face of the cost of living crisis and by the scandal of his billionaire wife Akshata Murthy, who took advantage of the status of “non-resident” to avoid paying taxes in the United Kingdom.
None of the other three candidates already confirmed are fairly well known by the British. Attorney General Suella Braverman, 42, has been criticized for her eagerness to take center stage during the recent crisis after holding her position very discreetly since 2020. Her only public and notorious intervention before public opinion has been very recent, defending the “legality” of the deportation of refugees to Rwanda, despite being the daughter of immigrants from Kenya and Mauritius.
Tom Tugendhat, 49, was elected MP in 2015 with the background of a war veteran in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was one of the most critical voices against Boris Johnson during the ‘Partygate’ and has had occasional frictions with the Government on international policy issues due to his relevant position in Westminster. But he is not a sufficiently recognizable name or face for the British either.
Steve Baker, 51, was Brexit minister with Theresa May and later evolved to radical positions, to the point of torpedoing the agreement with Brussels proposed by his chief of ranks and becoming head of the so-called European Research Group (ERG). He represents the toughest faction in the party, known as the “Spartans”.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (46), who has rushed back from the G20 meeting in Asia, is expected to make her candidacy public. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, 52, is today the favorite candidate of the ‘Tory’ militants and the most valued in the Government for his role in the war in Ukraine. Wallace has, however, kept a low profile during Johnson’s downfall, as has former Defense Secretary and Royal Navy reservist Penny Mordaunt (49), a betting favourite.
Nadhim Zahawi, 55 years old, the son of Iraqi Kurdish immigrants, architect of the vaccine campaign and “promoted” by Johnson as Treasury secretary in the midst of the crisis, is another name that sounds insistently. Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid (52) opened this week the cascade of resignations that forced Johnson’s downfall and could stand again as a candidate.
It is enough with the initial support of eight deputies to be able to present the candidacies. In successive votes among the ‘tories’ parliamentarians, the candidates are finally reduced to two. It is then when the militants of the party can vote and choose between the two final candidates. In 2019, Boris Johnson won with 63% of the vote, almost double that achieved by his rival, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is also considering whether to try again.
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