In 2019, Jeremy Corbyn led Labor to its worst election defeat since 1935. His party won only 202 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. A year later, the politician accused of anti-Semitism and weakness for Trotskyist theses was no longer the leader of the opposition. A former barrister and lawyer, Starmer began the painstaking process of completely rebuilding the group, which today has taken on a centrist, liberal character. He changed the staff of the party and reversed its working principle: instead of being guided by a radical ideology of social transformation, he wanted to meet the expectations of the British.
The change became so profound that before last Thursday’s elections, the symbols of London finance: the “Financial Times” and the “Economist” called on people to vote for the Labor Party. The latter weekly predicted that Labor would win 465 seats this time around, a feat achieved by Tony Blair in 1997 in a historic referendum for the British left. The Tories will be content with 76 seats, the worst result since the party was formed nearly two centuries ago.
This year, the IMF predicts meager GDP growth of 0.5%, six times lower than in Poland’s case.
What is the secret of Labour’s success? A reading of the manifesto published by the Labor Party shows that the heart of Starmer’s plan is to revive growth. Since the Great Financial Crisis 15 years ago, the economy has basically stalled. It was expected to recover at least after the collapse of Covid. However, since 2019, national income has only grown by 1.8%. compared to 8.6 percent in the case of the United States. This year, the IMF forecasts GDP growth of 0.5 percent, six times lower than in Poland’s case.
