Britain / Leaning to the right

Faced with the prospect of a historic defeat in July’s early parliamentary elections, polls show Britain’s Tories, which appears to be whetting the appetite of political forces to their right. An illustrative example is the hasty return of Nigel Farage to the political scene, resulting in the overall shift of the public debate towards even more conservative positions.

The “prophet” of Brexit has never been distinguished for its reliability and consistency. So few were surprised when, just days after announcing he would not stand in the July 4 election, he did a 180-degree U-turn by suddenly announcing his resignation as leader of the xenophobic Reform UK party. The veteran politician, who has contested seven parliamentary elections in Britain without ever being elected, appeared more ambitious than ever. His goal, as he announced, is to take over the reins of the conservative faction in Britain. “No one can predict what will happen in the next three or four years. “All I can say is that if Reform succeeds in the way I expect it to succeed, then a section of the Conservative Party will join us,” Farage said on the ITV morning show. “I don’t want to join the Conservative Party. I think it would be best to understand it,” he added.

He began his election campaign on Tuesday from Clacton, “the most patriotic town in Britain”, as he described it during his speech. He pointed out that Conservatives and Labor are now little different from each other, having long since ceased to be “patriotic” forces.

Seller of national pride

“We want to put voices in Westminster that really believe in Britain. We don’t want our children’s minds to be poisoned by telling them that they shouldn’t be proud of their country,” he stressed. Reform UK currently hovers between 11% and 15% in most polls, with Farage’s return expected to boost it further.

The same figures show the Conservatives facing the specter of an unprecedented electoral defeat. Rishi Sunak’s party has slumped to 24%, a figure which, if confirmed at the polls, would give the Tories one of their weakest representations in Parliament in Britain’s electoral history.

On the contrary, Keir Starmer’s opposition Labor seems ready to conquer a historic self-reliance (485 seats, while 326 are required for a parliamentary majority) and a percentage that could reach 45%.

Sunak and Starmer squared off on Tuesday night in the first televised debate of the pre-election season, and the subject matter of the debate was revealing of the extent to which the far-right political agenda, centered on immigration, has completely dominated. The British prime minister presented as important achievements of his government the flights-deportations of immigrants to Rwanda – which are expected to begin in the summer – as well as the imposition of a ceiling on the number of those who receive visas. For Starmer the key issue was that immigration had “gone out of control” under the Conservative government. “Immigration levels are too high. It is at twice the level it was when we were in the EU. That’s the irony,” he pointed out.

At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, reports in the American press showed President Biden adopting an even tougher stance on immigration under pressure from Republicans and Donald Trump, who are promising the “largest mass deportation program” in American history if elected President November. According to reports, the US President is set to sign an executive order that will activate a 1952 law that provides for the imposition of emergency restrictions on the granting of asylum in the event that the influx of immigrants reaches such a level that it is deemed “injurious” to the US national interest .