Will SL govt. do better than UK Labour administration?

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Monumental elections were held both in Sri Lanka and the UK recently. Whilst optimism is still running high in Sri Lanka, this emotion seems to have faded fast in the UK. Though many political observers predicted an autumn election in UK, Rishi Sunak sprang a surprise by going for an early election in July with disastrous consequences for the Conservatives, who had been in power for 14 years. He would have done much better in an autumn election, and Rishi Sunak is yet to explain why he went for an early election; it may well be that he had so much of backstabbing from his colleagues that he decided ‘enough is enough’.

It was widely expected that Labour would win so much so that even captains of the industry, who usually support Conservatives, started singing the praises of the then shadow Chancellor, Racheal Reeves, a Master of Economics degree holder from the prestigious London School of Economics. What was totally unexpected was the magnitude of the Labour victory, which was partly due to the right-wing Reform party splitting the Conservative vote. With an increase of just 1.6% of the share of the vote, Labour was able to gain 211 seats, having 412 out of 650 parliamentary seats. With a technocrat, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer as the Prime Minister and the economist Rachel Reeves as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a new dawn was anticipated and optimism was running high.

One hundred days later, it is now like a false-dawn! One MP has already quit the Labour party, the fastest exit of an MP from a governing party in the UK. Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have fallen to minus 26 and Labour’s to minus 21. Almost half of those who voted for Labour feel let down by the government, and Conservatives who were trailing Labour by over 20 points, at the time of the election, are now neck and neck with Labour. What a change in a matter of just 100 days!

What are the reasons for this drastic change in fortunes? Top of the list is sleaze, the Prime Minister himself topping the table. Keir Starmer has been receiving personal gifts estimated to be worth over £100,000 from Lord Waheed Alli, the biggest donor of the Labour party. Not only had he received large sums for suits and eyeglasses but also his wife has received donations for her dresses! Many other Cabinet members, too, have been beneficiaries of Lord Alli’s generosity. According to British law, it is not illegal, as long as these are declared in the book of members interest, which they have done but what they have not been able to defend is the immorality of these actions.

Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, whose damning report regarding the parties held in Downing Stret, during the Covid epidemic, led to the resignation of Boris Johnson, was recruited as the chief of staff by the then Leader of the Opposition Keir Stramer, breaking existing conventions. When he became PM, she was naturally chosen to be the Chief of Staff at Downing Street, but she had insisted on a salary increase of £5,000 over that of the previous holder.

Interestingly, this increase would mean that her salary would exceed that of the PM! When other political advisors, whose salary have been reduced, leaked this information to BBC, Keir Starmer initially denied but later had to admit that it was his decision! Sue Gray’s son who got elected as a new MP from the Labour Party was rewarded with a position in government. However, it is extremely unusual for any MP with no experience at all to get any position like that. Further, it was disclosed that he too had received £10,000 from Lord Alli. As things got too hot, Sue Gray had no choice but to resign, reflecting very badly on Starmer’s judgement.

The deputy PM, Angela Rayner was seen, in a widely shared YouTube video, to be raving in a DJ booth in Ibiza and it again was a freebie. Sleaze never seems to end!

Next was Taylor Swift’s world tour creating a ‘Taylor-gate’ for the Labour government. When it transpired that the PM as well as the Home Secretary had received free tickets for her tour, PM agreed to pay for them! Worse was yet to come; it has now transpired that Taylor Swift was given ‘Blue Light’ top security by the Metropolitan Police, which is usually reserved only for royalty and very senior politicians.

It was reported in the British newspapers that the Scotland Yard was reluctant to do so but was pressured to do so by the Home Secretary as well as the Labour Mayor of London, who too was a recipient of free tickets! Worse, some papers reported that they had pressured the Met through the Attorney General! Why the security for a popstar who earns billions should be provided at taxpayer’s expense is a question that needs urgent answers, especially when one of the first acts of the Labour government was withdrawing the winter heating allowance from poor pensioners!

Rachel Reeves decision to tax the rich, especially the non-domiciled, has led to a flight of the rich out of the UK and her gloomy predictions of the economy has backfired. One of the first acts of the new government was passing legislation strengthening trade union action. Meanwhile, Starmer is chairing a summit to attract investment. In this mess, no one knows where the UK is heading!

We blame our politicians in Sri Lanka but it looks as if all politicians, the world over, were equally bad! It is hoped that the new government in Sri Lanka has learned lessons not only from their predecessors but also from what is happening around the world. For sure, we do not want it to go the UK way.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), as the first president to be elected without a majority, needs to tread carefully but some of the appointments made by his government have raised many eyebrows.

Equally, some of the claims made by his supporters is hilarious. Their claim about the smallest Cabinet is true but it is an attempt to make a virtue of necessity. If AKD had waited till his successor in Parliament was sworn in before dissolving parliament, he could have had a Cabinet of four.For the sake of Sri Lanka, I do hope that AKD and the government due to be elected, will do better than UK’s Labour government.