A United Kingdom deeply divided by Brexit goes to the polls for the third time in four years on Thursday in a febrile context marred by allegations of lies, blurred party loyalties and uncertainties in an election considered ‘critical’ for its future.
After Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered milk and rustled up a pie for photo ops on Wednesday, a poll of opinion polls suggested two close scenarios: a slender Conservative majority or a hung parliament, both of which may not exactly resolve the Brexit imbroglio.
Conservative and Labour – the two main contenders – had Brexit as their core message: the former sought a majority to deliver it by the deadline of January 31, while the latter promised to re-negotiate it and hold another referendum, with the ‘remain in EU’ option.
The choice in effect is about real change in British society and direction: a bigger role for the state under Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, including nationalising services such as railways, and Johnson seeing the country through Brexit as per the agreement reached in October.
Former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair have not been optimistic about their own parties. After over three years of inconclusive debates and paralysis in Westminster to pass Brexit legislation, the election’s significance is often mentioned in superlatives.
{{/usCountry}}Former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair have not been optimistic about their own parties. After over three years of inconclusive debates and paralysis in Westminster to pass Brexit legislation, the election’s significance is often mentioned in superlatives.
{{/usCountry}}The Guardian said in its Wednesday editorial: “Britain has not faced a more critical election in decades than the one it faces on Thursday. The country’s future direction, its place in the world and even its territorial integrity are all at stake, primarily because this is a decisive election for Brexit”.
“The choice is stark. The next prime minister is going to be either Boris Johnson, who is focused on ‘getting Brexit done’ whatever the consequences, or Jeremy Corbyn, who with a Labour-led government will try to remodel society with a programme of nationalisation and public spending”, it added.
Fact-checkers have never been so busy in British elections, with every statement by lights scrutinised amid swirling allegations of lies. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford calls it ‘a bad election for truth’.
An India angle has marked the election as never before, with Labour bearing the brunt of anger in sections of the community for its stand on Kashmir and for not nominating an Indian-origin candidate in its stronghold of Leicester East, held for 32 years by Keith Vaz, who stepped down.
Labour continues to enjoy much influence in the 1.5-million strong community but has been haemorrhaging support in recent elections from young, aspirational third generation members, who have increasingly veered towards the Conservative party.
The Conservative party under David Cameron won a slender majority in 2015, but lost it with Theresa May as its leader in the Brexit mid-term poll of 2017. Thursday will decide whether Johnson can regain the majority or Corbyn leads Labour to power for the first time after 2010.