Daily Times

The results of the British elections confounded the political pundits who predicted a landslide victory for Tory Party. On the morning of the Election the leading British newspapers carried headlines predicting a landslide victory for Theresa May’s Tory Party. The Independent’s headline on the Election Day read, “Theresa May will win biggest Tory landslide since Thatcher, final survey predicts’’.

Although Tory party, which traditionally has bases among rural areas, small towns and wealthy suburbs, has emerged as the largest party, thanks to the incessant media campaign by almost all the mainstream media outlets sowing confusion in the minds of general public about Jeremy Corbyn being terrorist sympathiser and Jihadist, the mood in Tories’ camp is now like cats in a bag fighting among each other while Labour’s, which has come second, camp is jubilant and fully enthused.

Theresa May called a snap general election on 18th April. Ostensibly, she did it to secure a big mandate to negotiate a Brexit deal on her terms with European Union but her real objective was to unleash a crushing defeat against Labour and ending the political career of Corbyn. The Tory party was expecting to increase their majority in parliament by perhaps 100 seats or more. In fact, all the opinion polls initially predicted the same. They forecasted a complete rout for labour party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and a landslide victory for Theresa May. She began the campaign with a 24 percent lead in the polls but British voters turned Tory dreams to dust.

In last elections in 2015 voters turnout was 66.1 percent while in yesterday’s elections, turnout was increased to 68.7 percent. This was mainly young people who had been denigrated for being non-political and unlikely to vote. The Conservatives lost 12 seats and Labour increased 29 seats and their share of the vote rose by 9.5 percent which is the biggest political shift in the last 70 years. Interestingly, in these elections, UKIP, the right wing party which pushed hardest for Brexit, saw its vote share reduced by 10.8 percent compared to 2015. But their former voters split quite evenly between Labour and the Tories.

The British people did not let Tories and the right wing to exploit Manchester and London bombings to stir up Islamophobia and reactionary moods, despite outrageous and insipid attempts to smear Corbyn as a terrorist sympathiser by most of the mainstream media.

Another significant development was the loss of 21 seats by Scottish Nationalist party (SNP) and for the first time in many decades, Tories increased their seats in Scotland. This change in Scotland is due to the factor that many SNP voters from last time preferred a Brexit deal proposed by Theresa May over SNP’s proposals about Brexit and that’s why they voted for Tory Party.

Liberal Democrats increased four seats from last time. Entire election campaign of Liberal Democrats revolved around staying in European Union and they were proposing to hold another referendum on that. Little support for them may indicate that Brexit was not on the top priority of English voters.

Political pundits were predicting that young people would not come out in large numbers but the percentage of young 18-24 years old voters increased from 43 per cent in 2015 to 66.4 per cent and 63 percent of them voted for Labour. Political analysts failed to recognise that young people felt alienated from politics because they did not see any difference between Labour and the Tories in the last decades. This changed with Labour’s new manifesto, which included the pledge to end university tuition fees immediately.

Although Corbyn’s Labour party did not win the majority in these elections — the revolutionary politics he ushered in is not going anywhere now

Many also failed to recognise the latent energy that Jeremy Corbyn tapped into amongst the young and the old. This election was characterised above all, by millions of people who became energised and inspired by the radical policies and manifesto of Labour party and by Corbyn’s vision of hope.

Jeremy Corbyn opened politics up. He attacked the vested interests of rich, and put the interests of the common man and woman at the center of his appeal. They came to believe in his vision and leadership.

Politically disengaged and alienated people felt that politics could be different. This is one of the biggest political shifts in recent history. Even two heartland of conservative England — Kensington and Canterbury voted Labour.

Although Corbyn’s labour party did not win the majority in these elections but the revolutionary politics he ushered in is not going anywhere now, as the weekly Economist says “Labour party now belongs to Jeremy Corbyn and Blair era truly ended on June 8’’.

The Tories have cobbled together a temporary deal with the far right Democratic Unionist Party which has historical links to right wing paramilitary terrorist groups in Northern Ireland but the atmosphere of Right wing media and Tory camp is so gloomy that no one including Tory MPs believes that their government will survive long. Now Corbyn’s Labour party holds all the ace cards in British politics.

For the last three decades, politics in Britain became the preserve of rich. The parliamentary theatre served their interests, whereas the masses were pawns in their game. The owners of private media corporations could make or break governments. This has fundamentally changed now as Corbyn has empowered the common people.

British elections may also hold lessons for Pakistan. The Pakistan People’s Party is the only mass social democratic party in Pakistan which has lately become a club for the rich. The economic and social development agenda which led to the creation of the PPP has been forgotten. The PPP leadership takes the common people for granted and forgets them after elections. But the patience of the masses seemed to have run out and although it has been quite late for PPP, it still might have a chance to attract common people by adopting a revolutionary reformist agenda on the lines of Labour Party.

The writer is a graduate in economics and a freelance researcher. His twitter handle is @aatifnazar