A huge victory was achieved in the special election of the parliament. The British municipalities have won hundreds of seats. The first flavor of power in the lower levels of the government.
By making extensive gains in a series of local elections held in England on Thursday, Nigel Farage is one of the most prominent supporters of the UK’s President and leader of the anti-immigration reform British party, cementing his reputation as the country’s most important political barrier.
But he might do something bigger: blowing a hole in the country's bipartisan political system.
For almost the entire century, British power alternated between the ruling Labor Party, now led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the Labor Party, which chose a new leader Kemi Badenoch last year.
However, with support for reforms and gains for other small parties, this double monopoly appears to be scattered.
“These two major political parties have been notified from their 100-year term at Downing Street,” said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester.
The Conservatives still suffered another set of disastrous results last year, but are still evacuating power after evacuating. With the economy unified, the labor force was punished by voters who were angry at the containment of government spending, and higher taxes have been introduced since taking office.
Professor Ford said voters rejected two major parties, adding that this was the result of what happened in the general election, “The Conservatives will no longer be a meaningful force in parliament.”
Claire Ainsley, former policy director for Mr Starmer, said the results also reflect long-term trends, including a breakdown of traditional class loyalty among voters, an increasing nationalist politics and growing support for centrist liberal Democrats, the Greens and independent candidates.
“We’ve been seeing the division of society and that has flowed to our politics,” said Ms. Asley, who now works in the UK at the Washington-based Institute for Progressive Policy. “There are many votes now.”
As a result, both major political parties are struggling because they find themselves not only competing with each other but also opposite to the left and right of opponents.
This public dissatisfaction was opened to smaller parties, including the Liberal Democrats, who won 163 council seats, with the greens receiving 44. But the biggest beneficiary is reform, and supporters of reform are supported by Mr. Farage's fierce campaign.
Party supporter John McDermottroe said in an interview at a reform rally in March that many in Stockton-on-Stockton region in northeast England felt that Labor was “stayed away from the working people”.
As for Mr. Farage: “He is very attractive, he communicates with people in every department of life and he will tell it.”
The fragments of Mr Farage unleashed British politics, even in the Serie Reform, including the mayor of a region known as the West of England.
Labor's Helen Godwin won the victory with just one-quarter of the vote, giving her a slight lead in the UK's reforms, while even the fifth-place party won 14% of the vote.
Less than one-third of qualified voters vote, a low turnout that is common in local elections. But that means Ms. Goldwin only has 7.5% of the eligible voters, former chief of staff in Downing Street and opposition Conservative member Gavin Barwell pointed out on social media, adding that the bipartisan political system is “collapse.”
This may prove to be exaggerated.
Due to the reorganization, the number of seats competing in local elections on Thursday has been the smallest since 1975, and voter turnout is always low in such competitions.
Britain's next general election – when the claim will be properly tested – will not have to be held until 2029, and the previous challenge of bipartisan superiority has disappeared.
In the early 1980s, the Social Democrats, established by the overwhelmed moderates of the Labor Party, promised to “break the pattern of British politics.” In a coalition with another centrist party, it briefly exceeded 50% in a poll. It turns out to be a false dawn.
However, as five parties compete for votes in a system suitable for two, British politics has become very unpredictable.
Born in the trade union movement, the union was once regarded as a working class party, and its heartland is located in the northern and central industrial areas of the country. Traditionally, conservatives represented the rich and middle class, with support mainly concentrated in the South.
These loosenings in relationships have weakened control of the two major political parties. In last year's general election, the labor force vote and the Tory total vote fell below 60% for the first time since 1922, while the overwhelming victory of Labor achieved only about 34% of the vote. In Scotland, the pro-dependence of the Scottish National Party is to reshape politics.
Mr Starmer now faces a conundrum: If Labour has the right to appease Mr Farage's sympathizers, it may lose the support of its progressive base, losing from its progressive base to the Liberal Democrats or the Greens.
Ms Asley said Labor faces a “great challenge” amid tensions in government spending, but added that it must focus on providing voters who are still suffering from increasing costs of living.
Conservatives face greater threats to reform and their own challenges. The Conservatives need to regain the right to voters who have moved to Mr. Farrager without moving, so that they push more of the liberal Conservatives toward the centrist Liberal Democrats.
Political scientists also say that the ongoing transformation could change the fate of reform, take the protest party, and turn it into a force that could make it ambitiously replace the Conservative party as the main opposition.
British parliamentary elections operate under a system called “the postal first to pass”, which elected candidates who won the most votes in each of the 650 constituencies. So far, this is usually a disadvantage for smaller parties.
“When it's just trying to break the double monopoly of labor statistics, a rough rule of thumb is that they and their former parties need at least 30% to overcome the bias inherent in the post,” wrote Peter Kellner, a pollster.
As more parties compete, without the dominant force, calculations are changing. He added: “The turning point for political parties like reform is no longer 30%. That could be 25%. That's their place in the polls.”
Professor Ford said he agreed that basic things are changing, and reform is now “good enough to be the outpost of the past first to stop being their enemies and being their friends.”
Professor Ford said that after the latest election results, “Nigel Farage said that the party that 'we are the real opposition' is much easier, and when people say that, it's hard to laugh at.”
