Why Britain Just Ended 14 Years of Conservative Rule

from The New York Times I'm Natalie. kroof and this is the. [Music]. daily for more than a decade Britain has. been governed by conservatives who push. the UK to the right embracing smaller. government and. brexit last week that era officially. came to an. end my colleague Mark landler explains.

why UK voters rejected the conservative. party and what a win by the British left. means in a world where right-wing. populism is on the. rise it's Wednesday July. [Music]. 10th Mark hi welcome back to the show hi. there Natalie I want to start this. conversation by just asking you to help. us break down what exactly happened in.

the UK elections last week well the top. line was the conservative party which. has been in government here for 14 years. was swept out in a resounding Landslide. by the labor party so remember the. conservatives often known as the Tories. are the right of Center party labor is. traditionally the left of center party. closely allied with the trade unions so. what happened in this election is that. labor won more than 400 seats in the.

parliament compared to only 121 seats. for the conservatives and so that puts. the labor leader Kier starmer into 10. Downing Street as the Prime Minister it. opens a new chapter in British politics. after more than a decade of conservative. Rule and it represents a resounding. repudiation of the conservatives by a. very angry electorate this is just a.

massive shift what caused that. turnaround after a decade plus of. conservative rule what made the British. voters reject the Tories in this. election there were really three. underlying issues that accumulated in a. way that simply turned voters against. them so I start with the economy it's. the Bedrock issue the one that really. underlies everything else and that story. starts back in 2010 when the. conservatives first come back in the.

government our economy is stuck in a rut. and we need change to get it moving let. me tell you what I would. do at that time they positioned. themselves as the responsible stewards. coming in in the aftermath of the global. financial crisis to get Britain's house. back in order to put Britain back on a. responsible course Britain's budget. deficit is so huge says David Cameron. that cuts of a massive 83 billion are. needed it'll be the most dramatic.

cutback of government spending since the. 1920s and a measure and so they embarked. on this period that's known as fiscal. austerity they basically cut back. funding for everything they include. 500,000 layoffs Cuts in welfare benefits. and major Cuts in the military prime. minister in a sense it balanced the. books but it did so at a great cost to. the economy and to public life in. Britain the report by the international. monary funds did warn that austerity.

measures may be jeopardizing growth. Britain ended up with a very slow growth. economy slow growth in wages that left. people feeling that they weren't growing. any more prosperous that they weren't. growing wealthier and sort of built up. this accumulated sense that things were. on the wrong track and then there is. this tumultuous event brexit brexit. brexit brexit and that of course is.

brexit I will go to Parliament and. propose that the British people decide. our future in Europe recall in 2016 the. conservative Prime Minister David. Cameron called a referendum in which. British voters were asked do you want to. remain in the European Union or leave. and there is this shock result the. British people have spoken and the. answer is we're out that Britain votes. to leave the EU is the UK economy. standing at the cliff Edge or is there a.

soft Landing the other side of brexit. and that adds yet another layer of drag. on the economy the EU was and is. Britain's largest trading partner. cutting those ties meant that suddenly. trade became much more difficult. bureaucracy much more cumbersome and a. general sense among businesses both. within the UK and outside the UK that. maybe Britain wasn't as good a place to.

invest so there's almost a sense of this. as a lost decade people feel that the. British economy has been shading water. and their own personal situations have. not gotten any. [Music]. better so at the end of this last decade. do voters start to question whether the. Tories are in fact the responsible. economic stewards they had said they. were well you might think this would be.

the moment that they would turn on the. Tories but in fact the Tories managed to. get themselves another term in the 2019. election and they stumbled on through a. couple more prime ministers the economic. crisis didn't really turn into a. political disaster for the Tories until. Liz truss remind us who Liz truss is so. Liz truss is the prime minister who came. in right after Boris Johnson and what. trust did is she came in and she.

basically tried an ideological. experiment on the British economy she. tried to pass very radical very sweeping. and completely unfunded tax cuts and it. had the effect of spooking the financial. markets sending the British pound into a. tail spin and basically wrecking the. confidence of both the domestic audience. as well as International investors in.

the United Kingdom and in a matter of. weeks Liz trust managed to undo whatever. reputation the conservative party had. built over decades for responsibly. managing the economy and she resigns on. her 44th day in office wow this. incredibly brief tenure of Liz trust was. really the straw that broke the camels. back here after more than a decade of. economic trouble yeah the British voter. were frustrated to be sure and.

discontent but not until trust came. along did the party really forfeit its. reputation for knowing how to manage the. economy after trust I think a majority. of Voters in this country simply decided. we can't if you will trust these people. with our economy and what do things look. like now well one of the things that's. very striking about the UK today is you. have have this very Dynamic vibrant.

Capital City London which accounts for a. disproportionate amount of economic. activity in the country and then you've. got the hinterland which in the UK can. be a fairly depressing place the. Midlands the north this is the old. industrial belt it would be the. equivalent of the Rust Belt in the. American Midwest and these are places. that have really suffered during this. long period of austerity so if you go. into some of these towns you see boarded.

up storefronts you see shuttered. factories you see a lot of people on. public assistance a lot of people who. are not physically all that well and it. is true and it's a statistic that's. often mentioned in this country that if. you take London out of the equation on a. GDP per capita basis which is a very. common way of measuring wealth the rest. of England is roughly equivalent to the. state of Miss Mississippi which is of.

course one of the poorest states in. America so that's one way of thinking. about the Britain of 20124 it's a major. contrast between London and the rest of. the country so it sounds like the. economy is really struggling and people. are starting to lay blame at the feet of. the Tories so that's one explanation for. why the public turns on this party what. else is at play well there's a second. issue and it's not unconnected from the.

first issue and that is the state of the. National Health Service across the UK. hospitals are at Breaking. Point the Beloved national public. Hospital Network that tens of millions. of Brits rely on every single day they. are running out of beds and the patients. keep. coming this also has been a victim of. years and years of austerity of cost. cutting or of very small budget.

increases the waiting room was Ram. trolleys were just piling up in the. hallway what you see are incredible. lines in emergency rooms at Big public. hospitals 7 and a half million people in. England now on a waiting list for. hospital treatment if you make an. appointment for elective surgery you're. often put on a waiting list for 8 months. 10 months 12 or even 14 months even if. you're a cancer patient you might not.

get immediate treatment because the. system is simply so overwhelmed sta. shortages are now leading to fears for. patient safety and after years and years. of chronic underinvestment one Junior. doctor said she was quitting after just. one year poor pay cited as the first. reason for such a drastic move it simply. doesn't have the physical resources the. human capital resources the doctors the. nurses and so you just have this sense.

of a country that feels a bit hollowed. out we haven't got enough doctors the. governments aren't funding the NHS. properly and this really has to stop and. this really why this isn't by the way. just true in the health care area but. it's most palpable and really most. visible to citizens in the NHS. [Music].

and part of the tor's identity right is. that they were the party of fiscal. responsibility that they were the best. stewards of the economy and it sounds. like that really is no longer holding up. in Britain and and that they've actually. become seen as the ones who are causing. these very real problems everyday. problems for the average voter yeah I. think that's right I think that to the. average voter.

the mismanagement of the economy became. linked to other things that affected the. quality of their everyday lives and then. there's a final thing and also very core. to the identity of the modern. conservative party one of the major. arguments that the pro brexit people. made was that this will enable us to cut. down on mass uncontrolled immigration. and they failed utterly in that goal as. well. the number of net arrivals in the.

country has gone up from. 300,000 to 780,000. so rather than declining after brexit. immigration soared how did that happen. why didn't immigration go down after. brexit if that was the big. promise well this is one of the. interesting paradoxes of the whole. brexit period this is the first time in. nearly 40 years where the British. government will be in control and will.

determine its own immigration policy. when Britain left the European Union it. did actually end uh freedom of travel. for people from the European Union we. are bringing an end to free movement of. Labor which of course is linked to our. membership of the European Union so what. you saw much less of in London for. example was waiters from Italy Greece. Spain in restaurants but what the. government was doing you know rather. quietly was changing the immigration. rules some important news today on.

long-term migration into the UK in the. years of June there's been a surge in. long-term immigration so that rather. than allowing uh relatively young. unskilled workers from the EU the. country began being more open to much. higher skilled people from other parts. of the world now the jump is caused by a. rise in non-eu migration with special. factors at play overseas students coming. back to the UK as covid restrictions. have relapsed so while you see much.

fewer polish plumbers for example you. see many more Indian Sri Lankan. Pakistani doctors special support to. people from Ukraine and Hong Kong and of. course you see many more Filipino nurses. and of course the impact of the Afghan. resettlements program many more graduate. students from Nigeria or other parts of. Africa so immigration didn't decline. it's the nature of immigration changed.

does that make people mad because I. think we're used to seeing in the US at. least that the frustration and. resentment towards immigrants is usually. related to the people who are coming in. and are in more desperate situations not. folks getting angry about doctors or. lawyers from abroad. it's a very complicated issue and I'm.

glad you asked it this way because it is. in fact true that for many English. people going to a hospital and being. treated by an Indian doctor does not. arouse any resentment they're grateful. that they have a doctor who's able to. see them the problem arises more from. immigration in the aggregate the net. migration to this country has increased. massively we've just spoken there's this. sense that the borders have been thrown. open how many more houses do we have to.

build that immigration is out of control. are they being schooled and educated and. looked after by our Social and Health. Services that's my main concern how. we're going to be able to cope because. we're not really coping now are we so. there is this kind of nagging Sense on. the part of many people by the way it's. not just people on the right that. immigration has gotten out of control. that this government had promised to. sort of bring it under control and. instead the opposite seems to be.

happening basically it sounds like. there's a lot of people who wanted. brexit specifically to reduce migration. these are folks who felt betrayed by the. Tories because they got the opposite. result and that's part of a bigger. thread here right this is a story about. mismanagement of core issues for the. British public the economy is a mess. immigration's Rising the Health Care. system is Rife with. dysfunction so is it fair to see the.

results of the election as essentially a. rejection of conservatism in the UK and. of the ideals that brought us brexit. which was so core to much of this. story I think it's certainly fair to see. this election as a rejection of a party. that failed at its most basic task which. was governing effectively and. responsibly on the face of it it looks. like a Triumph of the left but when you.

dig into it when you see how the voters. voted which parties did well which did. less well you get a much more. complicated picture about what it is. that voters really. [Music]. wanted we'll be right back. Mark I wonder if you can explain why.

what looked like this huge win for the. labor party is actually more complex I. mean on the face of it it would seem to. be this sweeping endorsement of the left. is that not what this is well you're. right on the face of it it looks like a. huge Embrace of left of center politics. and in fact the labor party performed. very well in this election but the key. thing to understand is this is not the. same labor party that ran in the last.

election in. 2019 this labor party is far more. Centrist and that's the result of a very. methodical deliberate plan on the part. of the party's leader kir starmer who's. now the prime minister to pull the party. away from some of its more LEF. dispositions in an attempt to make it. more acceptable to a broader range of. Voters how drastic of a turn to the. center are we talking about here mark. it was a fairly radical move on the part.

of starmer if you look at the old labor. party the party that ran in the 2019. election this was a party that talked. about. rationalizing the entire British. electricity grid this was a party whose. leader Jeremy Corbin was openly. skeptical about the role of NATO and in. each of these areas starmer moved very. deliberately he pulled the National. Security policy much more to the center.

made the party feel much more patriotic. he promised not to raise taxes on. working people he promised not to vastly. expand spending until the country could. afford it so across every one of these. areas it's more than just rebranding the. party starmer really repositioned it and. turned it into a center left party. rather than a pure left-wing party. starmer it sounds like basically turn. labor into an.

alternative that wasn't all that. different from the Tories it just had. much less baggage yeah that's exactly. right it's an exaggeration to say that. labor is Tory 2.0 there are policy. differences but the fundamental pitch. here is if you elect us we will do a. better job than the Tories but we won't. give you a radically different. government and now is that what's. happened I mean is the labor party now. the new standard Bearer in British.

politics this broadly acceptable. Centrist party that most people can get. behind well there's no question that in. terms of seats they are going to be the. political standard Bearer but the. interesting thing when you look to the. actual raw vote is that the labor party. didn't roll up the kind of crushing. landslide that you would expect given. how many seats they gained labor only. got roughly a third of the raw vote. which is actually less than they got in.

2017 when they lost to the conservatives. wow and that speaks to the fragmentation. of the electorate you had in this. election not two parties but four. parties that performed well in addition. to labor and the conservatives you had. the liberal Democrats another Centrist. anti- brexit party that did remarkably. well and then perhaps most interestingly. you had this new anti- immigration. Insurgent populist party reform UK that.

came out of nowhere and became a major. factor okay what's the backstory of that. party so reform grows out of the brexit. debate and basically this is a party. that's almost a single-issue party it's. an anti-immigration party they basically. argue that Britain needs to get this. flood of immigrants under control it's. led by this very well-known gleeful.

Insurgent politician named Nigel farage. he's been a fixture on the right in. Britain for more than a decade he was. one of the primary campaigners for. brexit and he fielded hundreds and. hundreds of candidates in this election. and what they wound up doing was. siphoning off a lot of the conservative. vote and how typical is it to see this. many parties do well in UK politics what. do you make of the fact that these.

smaller more obscure groups were able to. do so well well it is quite unusual and. uh it speaks to a couple of things one. is that you have an electorate that. particularly among young voters is much. less loyal to the major parties so in. this election labor and the. conservatives together got only 57% of. the vote that's the lowest combined. percentage for the major parties at any.

time in the post World War II period so. that's the overarching dynamic but. there's something very interesting going. on with votes on the right in this. election you had a number of. conservative voters vote for reform UK. as a way of registering their. unhappiness with the conservative party. particularly on the issue of immigration. they knew that those votes would help. ensure that a labor party got into. government but they were less worried by.

that Prospect in the old days with that. old much more left labor party. conservative voters would have been much. more reluctant not to stick with their. own party for fear of allowing the. opposition to get into Power this new. labor party this more Centrist labor. party did not scare them the same way. and in a funny way that empowered them. and enabled them to cast that protest. vote for reform UK K and that's really.

what split the vote on the right and. allowed labor to do so well so you have. these conservative voters who are still. out there who want to punish the Tories. and now they feel like they can because. they're not as scared right about a. labor Victory because labor is just more. palatable at this point that's right. labor has not threatened to raise their. taxes it hasn't threatened to blow out. the budget it hasn't threatened to do. all the things a labor government might.

have done five years ago and as a result. voting for Nigel farage and his party. seems like a less risky thing to do so. mark this is a much more complicated. picture for the labor party which is now. you know running the government this is. hardly a decisive win for them an. endorsement of their. ideology how do you think they're seeing. it well I think they recog nize that. because of all the issues we discussed.

their relatively low raw vote total the. fragmentation of the voters the fact. that other parties have done so well. that they need to produce results. quickly that they're dealing with an. impatient electorate a volatile. electorate fickle voters who are not. going to cut them a lot of slack they. know that in less than 5 years the. conservatives managed to turn a. landslide Victory into a land slide. defeat yeah and they don't want to.

suffer the same fate so starmer I think. is going to try that within a year or. two he can say to voters look you. elected me to be more competent you. elected me to turn around this economy. this is what I've done judge me on that. and then I think if he can pull that off. he has a very good shot of getting a. second term starmer wants to move fast. here but I mean it strikes me that all. the issues we talked about these. challenges he's staring down are pretty. hard to turn around quickly I mean.

fixing the economy in the midst of. global economic uncertainty fixing a. starved Healthcare System. immigration yeah I mean you raised. exactly the right point starmer is in. this very difficult situation where he. needs to show some quick wins but a lot. of the remedies are long-term and. there's an added problem he has no money. so he has to do all this with an empty. Larder if you will and that's going to. be perhaps the biggest challenge of all.

how do you show wins when you don't have. many tools to work with right and. waiting in the wings you have these. smaller groups right including this. far-right anti-immigrant party that you. know is looking to see what happens and. prepared to capitalize on any weakness. I'd assume yeah that's absolutely right. even though the Reform Party won only. five seats in Parliament one of those. seats belongs to Nigel farage and he is. going to be taking shots at the labor.

government pointing out every single. shortcoming with an eye to building up. his party over time so that if labor. really fails in three four or five years. reform might not just be an Insurgent. party it might actually be a party. positioned to either play a kingmaker. role or really be a dominant presence in. British politics Mark that leads me to. ask you how you're thinking about the. stakes here and not just for the UK but. for the world I mean what would it mean.

for the labor party to. fail I think failure would have a. profound consequence for Liberal. democracies in the west I mean remember. France is currently dealing with a. surging hard right movement in its. parliamentary elections the Germans. dealt with hard right advances in recent. European elections and in a matter of. months voters in America may elect. Donald Trump so I think that the failure. of the labor party would reinforce a.

populist wave that appears to be. building in many of these countries and. success if the labor party can show that. a Centrist government can function. effectively in a world that's buffeted. by all of these populist more extremist. Trends you could foresee a world in. three years where Kier starmer a. successful center-left prime minister. almost stands as a bullwark for the.

rules-based international order and this. would be particularly true if Donald. Trump were elected in the US in. November you know the interesting. precedent for this is Angela Merkel who. was the chancellor of Germany when Trump. was in his first term as president and. was widely viewed as almost the leader. of the liberal Democratic world that's a. role I think that kir starmer could. potentially inhabit depending on how. events play out there's a lot of caveats.

here in both the US and in Britain but I. do think that starmer has this potential. to play a very very significant role at. an uncertain Time in the. West mark thank you so. much thanks. [Music]. Natalie we'll be right back.

here's what else you should know today. are you confident that President Biden. has what it takes to win a November and. serve the next four years as I've said. before I'm with Joe yes top. Congressional Democrats are indicating. they are unwilling for now at least to. push President Biden aside despite deep. concerns about his ability to win. reelection what was was there more. people saying Biden should step down or. more people saying. step we riding with B. you're right in the House and Senate.

Democrats emerged from private meetings. on Tuesday swearing allegiance to Biden. but the party remains deeply fractured. in the house seven members have already. called for Biden to withdraw including. most recently Mikey Cheryl of New Jersey. clearly this President is fit to serve. he has been fighting for the American. people I know more than 14 million. Americans have already voted for him. including those. in my state of Nevada Biden has remained.

strong thanks to the backing of key. constituencies including the. Congressional Black Caucus which has. come out in strong support of the. president's. candidacy today's episode was produced. by Rob zipco Nina Feldman and will Reed. it was edited by Brendan clink Berg with. help from Paige cowt contains original. music by Dan pal Diane Wong and Marian. Lozano and was engineered by Alyssa.

Moxley our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben lansberg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Natalie kro see you tomorrow. [Music].