Vol. 72/No. 23      June 9, 2008

In May 1 local elections in England and Wales, Labour’s share of the national vote dropped to 24 percent, falling into third place behind the Liberal Democrats. This was the party’s worst showing in 40 years.

In the vote for London mayor, Kenneth Livingstone, the Labour incumbent, was defeated by Conservative Boris Johnson.

Working people have turned away from Labour, holding the government responsible for declining real incomes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has imposed a 2 percent limit on public-sector pay rises. He also abolished the reduced income tax rate for people on very low wages, cutting the take-home pay of 5.3 million workers.

Official inflation is currently running at 4.5 percent. The accountancy firm Ernst & Young reports that disposable household income has fallen 17.5 percent in four years. Food and diesel prices have risen by 12 percent and 11 percent respectively this year.

Labour’s electoral victories over the past decade have depended on support from the middle classes and better-off workers. These layers are among those most affected by tightening credit in the housing market. The number of new mortgages has reached a 33-year low, falling a full 40 percent in the past year. Home repossessions rose 17 percent between January and March of this year.

Prime Minister Brown has also lost the backing of sections of the ruling class now considering that the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, may be a better option for making progress in dismantling the social wage won by working people, from education and medical benefits to welfare.

The government faced criticism for its decision last year to withdraw British troops from Basra, Iraq. Republican presidential nominee John McCain says the British forces should have stayed “longer and larger.” Following an offensive by Iraqi government forces in Basra against militias in the city this April, the government reversed course and postponed plans to further reduce troop levels in Iraq from 4,000 to 2,500.

In the local elections the ultraright British National Party won its first seat on the Greater London Assembly and increased its numbers of councilors across England and Wales from 84 to more than 100.

Parties presenting left reformist platforms fared badly. George Galloway, the Respect Party’s only member of Parliament, failed to get the 5 percent of the vote needed for election to the London Assembly, while the Left List, led by the British Socialist Workers Party, polled 0.92 percent of the vote.

Jonathan Silberman contributed to this article.  
 
 
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