The failures of the Conservative Party
By Tillie Fischoeder ’25
The rise of Labour Party support in the U.K. government is no surprise, given the failures of the Conservative Party in recent years. Britain is currently experiencing hampered economic progress and a cost-of-living crisis due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the war in Ukraine, and overall economic instability due to the implications of Brexit. Additionally, after Liz Truss stepped down as Prime Minister on only her 49th day in government and Rishi Sunak made cuts to environmental policy, English support for the Labour Party makes sense. The U.K.’s ongoing political shift to the Labour Party will be a positive force in the country’s politics.
Given its dedication to social services, a major drawback of the Labour Party has been that its high tax rate threatens to weaken the economy. However, the party is aware of this, and in a recent Labour Party convention, Rachel Reeves, a Labour Party Representative, told PBS that after more than a decade of Conservative leadership, it would prioritize economic growth over increasing taxation on the middle-class. She added, “But I must tell you, you cannot tax and spend your way to economic growth…The lifeblood of a growing economy is business investment.” Instead, the U.K. will fund social services by taxing affluent citizens not currently paying their fair share in taxes and taxing private schools, which are currently tax-exempt.
As it relates to climate change, the Labour Party plans on using a similar approach to Biden by investing in green companies with the hope of producing not only a cleaner world but more industrial jobs. However, this will look different in the U.K., given the obvious fact that Britain is simply in a different situation than the U.S. This strategy will prove effective compared to the Tories’ method of simply taxing and spending. Britain will build a stronger economy and planet by investing in companies, especially green ones.
Furthermore, Kallum Pickering, an economist, claimed that a Labour administration would likely make the U.K. a more appealing location for international investment due to the security provided by closer relations with the EU and Biden’s U.S. “So whereas the Conservatives are aiming to get the budget into balance within a couple of years, Labour would probably be able to run a couple of percentage points of GDP deficit, and that would not be immaterial.” The Opinium poll, which was based on a survey of about 2,000 British adults conducted between August 30 and September 1, found that support for Labour had increased to 42%, up 1% from the last poll in July, while support for the Conservative Party had increased by 2% to 28%. The Labour Party is on the rise, offering to “build a better Britain.” With the general election set to occur in the next year, the Labour Party majority might be exactly what the country needs, given its planned changes and the deficiency of the Conservative Party.
