Sunak lost the bet in the early election, the British political scene is about to change, the new prime minister has surfaced, and the British side's attitude towards China is not simple, what is the situation in this British election? Why is British politics so volatile? What is its attitude toward China?
On the 4th, the UK held a general election in July for the first time since 1945. According to the exit polls of the general election released by a number of British media that night, the Labor Party led by Keir Starmer won more than half of the seats in the lower house of parliament, won 410 of the 650 seats in the lower house of parliament, and will become the ruling party in the United Kingdom. This also means that the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 consecutive years and has gone through five prime ministers, has been replaced by the Labour Party, and the British political scene is about to change, and a new prime minister has surfaced. It is understood that in May this year, British Prime Minister Sunak announced that an early general election would be held on July 4. The so-called British general election does not directly elect the prime minister, but elects the members of parliament in the lower house of parliament. In the country's 650 constituencies, voters vote for the party representative of their respective constituency, and the one with the highest number of votes wins and becomes a member of the House of Commons, with one member representing one constituency. The party that wins more than half of the country's constituencies wins power, and its leader will become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street.
So why did Sunak make the decision to call an early general election? Originally, according to British law, the new parliamentary elections should be held before January 28 next year. Although the outside world has always expected Sunak to hold an early general election, the original expectation was that Sunak would have an early general election this autumn, because the economic situation may further improve by then, and voters can begin to benefit from the Conservative government's new tax cuts, which will be beneficial to the Conservative Party election. However, several Conservative MPs, who did not want to be named, revealed that the economic situation in the UK could deteriorate next. Therefore, the Sunak government has to take a risk and gamble further in the early election. Obviously, judging from the current results, Sunak lost the bet this time.
At the beginning of Sunak's reign, he made five major commitments, including reducing inflation, boosting economic growth, reducing the country's debt, reducing waiting lists for the NHS and passing new laws to stop illegal immigration. So far, from an economic point of view, Sunak's work seems to be quite effective, with inflation in the UK improving markedly, falling to 2.3% in April this year, the lowest level in nearly three years, but not all promises have been met. On the whole, the British people do not buy Sunak's work. According to the results of a poll released in June this year, 72 percent of the people surveyed thought that Sunak had done a poor job as prime minister, and only 20 percent of the people surveyed affirmed his achievements in less than two years. In addition, the "gambling on the election" scandal that appeared before the election also cast a shadow on the Conservative Party's election campaign. Several Conservatives and police figures have been exposed to using inside information to bet on the election for personal gain. These things are squeezed together, and the Sunak government has to decide to hold an early general election to avoid losing too ugly.
After the end of this election, if you count from 2016, when Theresa May succeeded Cameron as British Prime Minister, in just 8 years, Britain has produced five prime ministers, they are Theresa May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and Starmer. Why is British politics so volatile? This not only reflects the division and confusion within the Conservative Party, but also exposes the failure of the British government to govern the country and society. To some extent, this also shows that the British people are becoming more and more disillusioned with their country's democratic system.
With the inauguration of the new British government, Britain's domestic and foreign policies will inevitably change, and in the process, Sino-British relations will obviously usher in certain variables. Compared with the Conservative Party's blind following the United States and cooperating with the United States to suppress and contain China, the Labour Party's attitude towards China is not simple. So what kind of China policy will the Labour government develop? In this regard, Labour Party's shadow foreign secretary Lamy gave a clear answer, that is, the "3C" principle, that is, competition, challenge and cooperation, which is very similar to the United States' "confrontation, competition and cooperation" China policy, but it is different, and it will be more pragmatic, not meant to dance with the United States.