“They’re not persuaded that the Labour Party can deliver radically different results than the Conservatives,” Landler added, “but at this point, they’re willing to take the chance.”
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader who is set to become the next prime minister, will be faced with problems that many British voters worry are intractable. They include immigration, fixing the National Health Service — which is deeply underfunded and faces chronic staffing shortages — and righting the economy, which is struggling with high inflation that is contributing to a cost of living crisis.
Big picture: Britain’s election was a move toward the left, a potential counterweight to the growing strength of the far right in European countries like France and Germany. The result, Landler said, is that Starmer could “appear almost like a bulwark for liberal democracy.”
