The UK Has a New Government, But the Same Policy

The snap elections held July 4 in the United Kingdom handed a smashing defeat to the Tory Party which, after 14 years in power, lost a full two thirds of its seats in Parliament (from 367 down to 119). Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had called the elections knowing his party would lose, immediately resigned and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer began forming a new government.

However, although the Labour Party came in first, nearly doubling the number of its seats, one can’t really speak of the winner. Many chose Labour candidates simply by default, to get rid of the Tories, and the party ended up with less votes than in last general election in 2019.

So, the Conservatives are is out, but will the next government bring change? According to one of our sources, with Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, “Tony Blair is effectively running the country again”. That is, the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who pushed lies to get the U.S. to declare war against Iraq in 2003, who has supported all kinds of regime change operations throughout the world, and who proclaimed the end of the “Westphalian order” back in 1999 in a pitch for the “responsibility to protect”. One of Starmer’s very first phone calls in office was to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to assure him of Britain’s undying support, just as Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak had done.

As for the cabinet, the new Foreign Secretary is David Lammy. To give an idea of his profile, his first phone call was to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, and he has defended Israel’s war in Gaza, including calling a horrendous attack on a refugee camp legally justified. Moreover, he considers the “climate emergency” to be a priority for his office.

The Defence Secretary is John Healey, who had promised that in a new government, there would be “no change in Britain’s resolve” to defend Ukraine, confront Russia and pursue Putin for war crimes. Add to that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, who is firmly committed to saving the bankrupt transatlantic financial system. In line with the World Economic Forum (Davos) policy, her ministry is working on a costly climate investment plan. In addition, Ms Reeves is deputy chair of the “Labour Friends of Israel”.

On the positive side, Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour Party leader who was kicked out by the Blair faction, ran as an independent and won his seat hands down. Unfortunately, George Galloway, a staunch anti-war activist and defender of Gaza, lost the seat he had won in February after a nasty campaign accusing him of supporting terrorism (cf. SAS 12/24).