Et tu, Brute? If the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acted as Julius Caesar, whom should he ask that question: the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, or the Economist? All are august publications which have supported the Tories at every election since 2005. But now they have defected to Labour.
“Britain needs a fresh start” (The Financial Times). “The Tories have forfeited the right to govern. Over to Labour” (The Sunday Times). “Keir Starmer should be Britain’s next prime minister” (The Economist).
The Sunday Times, the Financial Times, the Economist — they all want change
They are all calling for change like the majority of voters. Labour has a 20 per cent lead over the Tories, according to the BBC.
However, the defectors have nothing against Sunak personally.
The Sunday Times says Sunak and the chancellor Jeremy Hunt are “decent public servants” who restored stability after a market crisis under the previous Tory prime minister, Liz Truss, who reigned for only 49 days.
Bickering and sleaze
The Financial Times agrees: “Rishi Sunak has taken steps to right the ship of state; Jeremy Hunt has been a serious chancellor. But the prime minister does not, even now, appear master of a party mired in bickering and sleaze.”
The Conservatives came to power in 2005 under David Cameron, who resigned as prime minister in 2016 after he lost the Brexit referendum to fellow Conservative Boris Johnson and company. Chaos and uncertainty followed, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Conservative infighting.
Recalling the turmoil, the Financial Times says: “Twice in the past half-century, in the swings to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives in 1979 and to Tony Blair’s New Labour in 1997, elections have brought a sea-change in British politics. Today the country is on the threshold of another momentous shift. Voters appear to have decided that, after an often turbulent 14 years in office spanning five prime ministers, the Conservative party’s time is up.”
Current woes
The newspaper laments growth and real wages have fallen, the tax burden is at a record high, “yet public services are unravelling [and] Britain’s defences are depleted.”
The Sunday Times says: “The period since 2016 has been defined by political chaos that has fatally distracted the political class from those issues that matter most to voters — healthcare, schools and the economy.”
The Economist says: “Trying to make the case for the Tories is like a teacher struggling to say something nice about the class troublemaker.”
It adds: “The Tories’ most memorable policy is to have severed the country from its biggest trading partner [the European Union]. That was always going to be bad for Britain, but the chaos of enacting Brexit split the party and voters have had to endure the Tory psychodrama ever since. Each prime minister has undone the work of the previous one.”
Now, voters will have their say on July 4, the US Independence Day.