Teachers, doctors, nurses, train drivers and workers in many other services have held strikes over pay and working conditions, with polls consistently showing that the public thinks the government is handling negotiations with unions poorly. It can take weeks to arrange an appointment with your doctor and months to get a vital medical procedure. Public services, including the much-loved National Health Service, are in a dire state. But it was ultimately various iterations of this government that decided to erect punitive post-Brexit trade borders with Europe and propose unfunded tax cuts that caused the pound to tank. Some of the reasons for this have been out of the government’s hands. The British economy is in big trouble after 13 years of Conservative government.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party suffered a drubbing at local elections. In reality, he hopes to hold the vote in the fall of next year. At most, he has until January 2025 – the last date he can legally hold an election – to turn things around. The task ahead of Sunak is a daunting one. Labour boasted that the results show it would not just beat Sunak at the next election, but do so decisively. The main opposition Labour Party could barely conceal its glee – the results would translate to a nine-point national lead according to PA Media. Presumably, party officials had hoped privately that it wouldn’t be as bad as that. With most of the results declared by early evening on Friday, the Conservatives had lost control of 45 local administrations and shed more than 1,000 councilors.īefore Thursday’s votes, the Conservatives had been in expectation management mode, briefing journalists they would lose heavily in areas that had been in Conservative hands for years. And they made grim viewing for a man hoping to lead his Conservative Party back to power in just over a year’s time at the next UK general election. Instead, he will be pondering a bleak future after watching a dire set of results pour in from a swath of municipal elections held around the country on Thursday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is unlikely to be one of them. Many Britons will enjoy the long weekend while celebrating the coronation of King Charles III.

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