My previous piece titled ‘My Name Is Khan’ (https://southasia.com.pk/2024/05/31/my-name-is-khan/), appeared in the June 2024 issue of SouthAsia, says, “These are the times when it may be surprising to find a politician whose reputation is not tainted in some way, or that the skeletons in his or her cupboard, rattling to be released by some relentless journalist, or who has not admitted to his or her error of judgment after his or her misdemeanours had been judged and had already spiced the media, standard and social.”
I had not even laid my hands on a printed copy of the June issue of SouthAsia when ‘out of the blue,’ an MP appeared to prove my point. The Guardian revealed that Craig Williams, standing for re-election, placed a £100 bet with Ladbrokes on a July poll. When approached by a very confident BBC journalist, he said: “I clearly made a huge error of judgment, that’s for sure, and I apologise.”
His boss, or the gentleman who Mr. Williams is the closest parliamentary aide to, happens to be none other than the Right Hon. Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and who, contrary to the general expectations for polls in autumn, called a surprise, snap election on July 04, 2024. The last time they were held in July was in 1945. Traditionally, general elections in the UK are held on the first Thursday of May. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that our special relationship friends from across the pond are celebrating their independence on that date.
Why did the prime minister call an early election? Perhaps he may have wanted to hit the iron when it was hot. Annual inflation had fallen to its lowest rate in almost three years, and the UK had emerged from recession earlier this year, proving that the plan and priorities he had set were working. But he may also have been aware that things could change quickly; inflation could rise, and the economy could take a downturn.
Desperate measures. So perhaps time was running out; for him, it was akin to a now-or-never scenario. Possibly, there was still a chance of luring the disenchanted Conservative voters back. And hope that in that short time, the unelected, articulate thorn in their side, one Nigel Farage, who a month or two back had said that he wanted to go to the United States to help Donald Trump get re-elected, would not be able to reform his Reform UK, into a formidable party. But Mr Farage decided to stay and is doing precisely what the prime minister and his party do not want him to do.
The Conservatives had been in the government for the last 14 years. But now they are roughly 20 points behind Labour. And in all probability, the Labour Party is expected to win; some even predict a landslide. When one’s star begins to fade, how bleak things look. In the favourability ratings, when the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, is a lowly 17, the prime minister’s is a rock-bottom 51.
Interestingly, when Sir Keir Starmer was delaying or not giving a clear answer about one of his MPs, whose suspension had been lifted, whether she would be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate again, a member of Mr. Sunak’s cabinet commented that if Sir Keir could not deal with this one person of his party, how would he deal with Mr. Vladimir Putin. I don’t know if the same could be said about the prime minister: if he cannot deal with an unelected member of a newly formed political party, how would he deal with Mr. Putin?
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