It is quite remarkable that barely five years after winning one of its biggest parliamentary majorities in memory, the Conservative Party of the U.K. is on the cusp of a complete wipeout.
Polling for the July 4 U.K. general election projects that the Labour Party will win an enormous majority of more than 200 seats and condemn the Tories to such irrelevancy that they may not even be the largest opposition party.
But when the exit poll projects the results in the evening of July 4 showing Labour winning a massive supermajority, and party leader Keir Starmer marches to Buckingham Palace to meet with King Charles and form a new Parliament as prime minister, the Conservative Party will have only itself to blame.
When then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to its landslide victory in 2019, the U.K. electorate delivered a mandate to finish Brexit and end the era of unfettered immigration. And while Johnson delivered a Brexit deal, he never addressed the immigration issue. He resigned in 2022 amid a scandal over his behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His replacement, Liz Truss, did not fare much better. She lasted barely a month as prime minister before she too resigned and was replaced by current leader Rishi Sunak, who himself only recently attempted to address the immigration issue when polling made clear that voters were fed up with the party that they charged with managing their government and are eager for change. It is Sunak who carries the dubious distinction of leading the Conservative Party into next month’s general election and its impending doom.
While every preelection poll for more than a year has predicted a massive Labour majority, a recent poll suggests that Sunak may be the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat in a general election. Such a result would drive home just how unpopular the Tories have become.
But the demise of the Conservative Party should be welcomed. It is only in the face of enormous electoral defeat that political parties change course, and the party that has ruled the U.K. for the last 14 years has largely failed to deliver a conservative government, opting instead for corporate-friendly policies that have seen the island kingdom accept a record number of immigrants in recent years.
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It is this failure to govern as a conservative party and address the immigration issue that has the Tories staring down their demise. And it is this failure that motivated Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage to once again enter the political arena and stand for a seat in Parliament with the goal of leading the opposition.
Whether he succeeds in that endeavor remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: If there is to be a conservative party in the United Kingdom, the voters must first push the Tories to the brink of extinction.