Finally, an action-packed episode of British politics has drawn to a close. It started roughly at the time of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid’s resignations in early July, followed by Boris Johnson’s resignation, a Tory leadership race, a new prime minister, a seismic mini-budget, sterling tanking, a confident performance by the Labour party and inevitably a government U-turn. The outcome has been a dramatic shift in the polls toward Labour. It will be two years before Britons can express their views in a general election, so a question hangs in the air – what now?
In the eyes of progressives the answer is clear: Labour wins, of course, and the Tories head into cold exile. Expectation has morphed into fact and now occupies the space between the present and future. But if a week is a long time in politics, then two years is several lifetimes. There is a risk that, in this moment of opportunity, Labour misses out on making the sort of systemic challenge that could, that should, send this calamitous Tory party into oblivion, and not merely into a corner to regroup.
