Many British local authorities are now electing new regional parliaments. For Prime Minister Sunak, the results of the Tory party are a first testimony – and the grades could be bad.
Hugh Padfield is an entrepreneur. The farmer runs a cheese factory near Bath, west of London. 50 people work here. Hugh has a special visitor that day. Ed Davey is here, leader of the Liberal Democrats. He wants to look at the company, learn what is important for farmers and entrepreneurs – and how cheese is made.
Hugh leads the politician through the cheese factory, past vats and through warehouses where the round cheeses mature: there are soft cheeses and others that are crumblier, refined with truffles or rubbed with cider.
shortage of skilled workers, high energy costs
Ed Davey listens, has everything explained to him, and is amazed. Pictures are also taken of the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who is interested in entrepreneurs, in farmers. It’s an election campaign. “No matter who you talk to – farmers, other entrepreneurs – they are dissatisfied with the government. For different reasons. Some will no longer have employees after Brexit, energy prices are rising,” says Davey. Energy prices have also risen in other countries, but the British government has reacted particularly badly, says the entrepreneur.
It’s about subsidies and agricultural policy. After leaving the EU, funding must be reallocated. Rents are rising, farmers fear that the land will become unaffordable.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey on campaign tour in Bath. The opposition is ahead in polls.
Good chances for the opposition
The Liberal Democrats cannot promise much – but they want to set an example in this election campaign for innovation, for rural areas, for entrepreneurs. The prospects for the opposition are not all that bad in this first test of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s mood.
Today over 8000 local authority mandates are being re-elected in England and Northern Ireland. In the polls, the Conservatives are 30 percent, Labor 44 percent and the Liberal Democrats 10 percent.
The Conservatives are still suffering from the back and forth at the top of the party: Boris Johnson’s resignation because of the Partygate affair, after which Liz Truss was in office for a few days. With a catastrophic financial policy, it sent the markets plummeting, and real estate interest rates have risen drastically since then. Then came Rishi Sunak.
It’s about Sunak’s political future
Homeowners will foot the bill, Labor leader Keir Starmer said in the House of Commons: “By the end of the year, two million homeowners will be paying for the Tories’ economic vandalism.” It’s about the higher cost of living in this campaign and rising council taxes. It’s about the collapsed health care system and privatized utilities that discharge unfiltered wastewater into rivers and the sea.
For Sunak, it’s about political survival. He stabilized the party, halfway capturing the extreme right of the conservatives. An agreement on trade with Northern Ireland has finally been signed with the European Union. But the high cost of living and the social aspects remain. During the exchange of blows in the House of Commons, Sunak accuses the Labor leader: The Tories delivered. In London, the former conservative mayor built 60,000 social housing units. But Labor has only achieved half so far, according to the prime minister.
mood test for general elections 2024
Whether these examples are enough to inspire voters for the Tories is rather questionable. There is no better prospect for the cost of living, and the problems in the NHS health service are overwhelming.
After these local elections, the question might be: will Labor be able to continue to govern alone after the next general election – probably in late 2024 – or will the party need a coalition partner? For example the Liberal Democrats.