Labour Crushed at Local, European Polls

Last Thursday, Britons went to the polls to elect local councils and Members of the European Parliament. Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet while ballots were counted. Last night, the results of the voting came out, and as expected, the Labour Party got crushed. While the final tally isn't known, The Guardian says Mr. Brown's party got but 15% of the vote. The Times claims it is Labour's worst result in 90 years. The writing is on the wall; Labour has run out of steam, and the next general election is the Conservatives to lose.

For Labour die-hards, one might point to the relatively tame showing the Tories had, doing only a bit better than in the Euro-vote five years ago. The minor parties picked up the disgruntled Labour voters it would appear. The Scottish Nationalists trounced Labour north of the Cheviots, while the UK Independence Party (an anti-EU faction that actually out-polled Labour in the popular EU vote), the British National Party (a racist lot), and the Greens picked up seats in England.

To add to Mr. Brown's troubles, he lost another minister today. Jane Kennedy, the minister of state for the environment, refused to sign a loyalty pledge to the PM. She gave him no choice but to sack her. She is the eighth minister to leave the government in the last week. Something about rats and sinking ships springs to mind.

Yesterday, Sally Keeble, MP for Northampton North, published a letter to her constituents in the Guardian that summed up the situation. “The transition from chancellor to prime minister was not an easy one, and when Gordon said in the autumn of 2007 he wanted more time to put forward his vision, that seemed fair. However, 18 months on, it is painfully clear that time has really run out.”

Looking at the Continent as a whole, the center-left parties lost ground across the board. So, one could argue that Labour's losses are part of a much larger rightward tide in the EU. To a certain degree, that is true. However, New Labour has been in office since 1997, and after 12 years, it has simply got nothing left to offer.

Mr. Brown will meet with his MPs later this evening, and those rebelling against his leadership will likely grow in number. However, the PM is not going to resign unless a senior Labourite challenges him directly. As the political saying goes, “You can't be somebody with nobody.” No evidence exists that suggests any such challenge. That being the case, Mr. Brown will continue on through the summer. A general election must take place by June 2010, and many senior MPs may believe it's better to lose under Mr. Brown than under someone else.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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