2023-08-20 12:37:21
Different leader, same policies. Despite its apparently moderate profileRishi Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street has not changed the sheet one iota route set by Boris Johnson in the campaign for the 2019 general elections, in which the ‘Tories’ obtained an overwhelming majority, and which made ending the irregular arrival of immigrants to the United Kingdom one of its main priorities. A proposal that has evidenced the turn of the Conservative Party to the radical right and that it has left the most moderate sector of the formation, represented in its day by the ex-prime minister David Cameronin a discreet second row.
The approval of the controversial Illegal Immigration Law in Parliament, which provides for the immigration detention and deportation in an irregular situation, has been a clear example of the strong hand that Sunak and his Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, are willing to apply despite resistance from human rights and justice organizations. The law has drawn criticism even within the Conservative Party, including the former Prime Minister Theresa Maywho harshly criticized the new rule in the House of Commons shortly before its approval ensuring that “it will allow people traffickers to make more money at the expense of the human misery“.
inflammatory proclamations
The warnings of some deputies ‘Tories’, however, have not stopped the hardest sector of the formation, which has taken the reins of the Government with a series of incendiary proclamations aimed at winning back the voters who gave Johnson an absolute majority in 2019. And leading them is Altarwho despite having a less populist position and a more contained and prudent character than his predecessor, was one of the first deputies conservatives in supporting the Brexitwhich helped him gain weight within the formation.
“Sunak may come across as some kind of moderate technocrat, but he is actually a social and fiscal conservative“, explains to EL PERIÓDICO, from the Prensa Ibérica group, Tim Baleprofessor at Queen Mary University of London and author of the book ‘The Conservative Party After Brexit’ (The Conservative Party after Brexit). “He knows that his fiscal conservatism is not particularly attractive to many of the voters who turned to the Conservatives in 2019, but he is desperately confident that talk about crimeof immigration and of his rejection of low emission zones, it is. There is also a snowball effect: once a party begins its journey towards radical right-wing populism, it is hard to stop.”
“Red Wall”
One of Sunak’s big goals is to keep the voters of the “red wall”the central and northern areas of the country, which have a majority working class and traditionally labor but socially conservative. Some voters that the prime minister intends to attract with his tough speech against immigration, despite the fact that this means a possible loss of votes among the supporters of the Conservative Party closest to the liberal center. “It is a risk that [Sunak] is willing to assume: the ‘Tories’ have large majorities in southern constituenciesmore affluent and in many cases more liberal and contrary to Brexit, so can afford to lose more voters there than in the more marginal seats in the north, less affluent and culturally conservative, who voted in favor of Brexit,” says Bale.
Factions of the Conservative Party such as the Blue Collar Conservativesmade up of MPs from the Central and Northern England constituencies and heavy-handed advocates against immigration, have gained weight in recent years. Among its most prominent members is Lee Andersonone of the vice presidents of the formation, who just a few days ago assured that asylum seekers who refuse to settle on the ‘Bibby Stockholm’ barge, known as the “floating jail“ to welcome immigrants, they can “fuck off and go back to france“.
climate policy
Beyond immigration policies, Sunak has shown to have a less forceful position than expected in the fight against climate change. The award of more than a hundred new licenses for gas extraction and oil in the north sea has awakened the reviews of some of his fellow party members, including the one who was Secretary of State for the Environment and Energy until last June, Zac Goldsmithand the representatives of the group Conservative Environment Networkformed by more than 150 deputies ‘tories’.
The prime minister insists that the goal of reaching the emissions neutrality in 2050 is still achievable thanks to investments in carbon sequestration plants, but more and more voices, both inside and outside the formation, think otherwise and fear that the radicalized positions of the Government in this matter frighten the more moderate electorate.
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