Parliament is often a bit of a pantomime. But yesterday’s debate about the King’s Speech was a total game of charades. When the King read out the speech on behalf of “My government,” many observers wondered who exactly he was talking about.
In the debate that followed, there was Keir Starmer, talking up his government’s plans for the coming year. In the real world everybody knows that, less than two years after taking office, he is a dead prime minister walking who should already be gone. Even many of the Labour MPs sitting behind Starmer were wondering when to stab him in the back.
On the other side there was Kemi Badenoch for the Conservatives, taking easy potshots at the wounded Starmer as if she really were the leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, preparing to take power. In reality, outside the Westminster bubble, the Conservatives are no longer a serious national party, their reputation and support shredded by 14 years of betrayal in government.
And overall, there were Starmer and Badenoch, both pretending that politics can still carry on in the same old two-party way. In reality, everything has changed. Their charade of a debate was a desperate attempt to ignore the democratic elephant in the room - the historic rise of Reform UK and the end of the establishment’s two-party system, as confirmed in last week’s elections.
In the debate that followed, there was Keir Starmer, talking up his government’s plans for the coming year. In the real world everybody knows that, less than two years after taking office, he is a dead prime minister walking who should already be gone. Even many of the Labour MPs sitting behind Starmer were wondering when to stab him in the back.
On the other side there was Kemi Badenoch for the Conservatives, taking easy potshots at the wounded Starmer as if she really were the leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, preparing to take power. In reality, outside the Westminster bubble, the Conservatives are no longer a serious national party, their reputation and support shredded by 14 years of betrayal in government.
And overall, there were Starmer and Badenoch, both pretending that politics can still carry on in the same old two-party way. In reality, everything has changed. Their charade of a debate was a desperate attempt to ignore the democratic elephant in the room - the historic rise of Reform UK and the end of the establishment’s two-party system, as confirmed in last week’s elections.
In those real elections on 7th May, Labour and the Conservatives combined together commanded barely a third of the votes cast. Labour lost more than 1,500 council seats. The Conservatives, contrary to their claims of a comeback, lost another 500-odd seats.
Reform UK wiped out the Conservatives in their longstanding strongholds such as Essex, and stormed Labour’s former heartlands in the North and the Midlands. Labour lost control of Wales for the first time since the Senedd opened 27 years ago. The Tories did so badly in Scotland and Wales that they can no longer be considered a national party.
These results are the real reason why the Starmer government is now in a terminal crisis - not because Badenoch made a speech or some Labour ministers resigned. Our campaign slogan - “Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out” - became the defining issue of the elections.
Starmer did have one moment of semi-insight in parliament yesterday, when he told the Conservative leader that they “do have one thing in common. Our parties both had tough results in the local elections last week. The difference is that she hasn't noticed”. The other difference, Starmer concluded, is that “We are in government and they are no longer even in opposition”. Half-right anyway, prime minister.
Despite the deluded Labour and the Conservative parties trying to pretend that Reform UK did not really wipe the floor with both of them last week, all the momentum in British politics is with us. Our national poll ratings have gone up again on the back of our election victories.
Hiding behind the portcullis of parliament, they can try to fool themselves that nothing has really changed. But in the real world outside Westminster, both Labour and the Conservatives stand exposed as yesterday’s parties. Time to stop the charade.
Reform UK wiped out the Conservatives in their longstanding strongholds such as Essex, and stormed Labour’s former heartlands in the North and the Midlands. Labour lost control of Wales for the first time since the Senedd opened 27 years ago. The Tories did so badly in Scotland and Wales that they can no longer be considered a national party.
These results are the real reason why the Starmer government is now in a terminal crisis - not because Badenoch made a speech or some Labour ministers resigned. Our campaign slogan - “Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out” - became the defining issue of the elections.
Starmer did have one moment of semi-insight in parliament yesterday, when he told the Conservative leader that they “do have one thing in common. Our parties both had tough results in the local elections last week. The difference is that she hasn't noticed”. The other difference, Starmer concluded, is that “We are in government and they are no longer even in opposition”. Half-right anyway, prime minister.
Despite the deluded Labour and the Conservative parties trying to pretend that Reform UK did not really wipe the floor with both of them last week, all the momentum in British politics is with us. Our national poll ratings have gone up again on the back of our election victories.
Hiding behind the portcullis of parliament, they can try to fool themselves that nothing has really changed. But in the real world outside Westminster, both Labour and the Conservatives stand exposed as yesterday’s parties. Time to stop the charade.
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Picture by: Young Shih.
