Labour Wins Landslide Victory in U.K. Snap Elections

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Labour’s victory in the U.K. elections, Iran’s presidential runoff vote, and Hungary’s diplomatic efforts with Russia.

Labour Takes Control

The United Kingdom’s Labour Party secured a landslide victory against the Conservatives in snap elections on Thursday, ending the Tories’ 14-year hold on power. With more than 170 seats, Labour now holds its largest majority in Parliament since former Labour leader Tony Blair’s historic win in 1997. Voter turnout hit 60 percent, just above the record low reached in 2001.

This was the Conservatives’ worst defeat in the party’s 190-year history. Tory leader Rishi Sunak resigned as prime minister on Friday morning after his party won only 121 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. “I am sorry,” Sunak told the public on Downing Street. “I have heard your anger, your disappointment. And I take responsibility for this loss.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer was sworn in hours later as the U.K.’s next top official. He advocated for “stability and moderation” and promised to focus on public service. “Politics can be a force for good,” Starmer said in his first address as prime minister. “We will show that. We changed the Labour Party, returned it to service, and that is how we will govern.”

Starmer’s new cabinet will include Pat McFadden as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, David Lammy as foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper as home secretary, and John Healey as defense secretary. Rachel Reeves will become the first woman to be the chancellor of the Exchequer, and Ed Miliband—once the leader of Labour—will act as secretary of energy security. Wes Streeting will become health secretary, Angela Rayner was named deputy prime minister, and Bridget Phillipson is set to become education secretary.

“It’s not so much that Labour won this election, but rather that the Conservatives have lost it,” said the Conservatives’ former defense secretary, Grant Shapps. He blamed political infighting for the Tories’ failures, saying the British public was sick of London’s “endless political soap opera.” Former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss, who held office for a mere 45 days, lost her parliamentary seat on Thursday. Constituencies previously held by former Tory Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and David Cameron were also lost.

Labour’s rise comes in contrast to the success of far-right movements across much of Europe. Still, the right-wing Reform U.K. party won its first five seats on Thursday. “Something very fundamental is happening,” right-wing populist leader Nigel Farage said after winning a seat in the House of Commons. “There is a massive gap in the center-right of British politics, and my job is to fill it.”

Reform U.K. also split normally Conservative-safe seats among itself, Labour, and the centrist Liberal Democrats. After winning just 11 seats during the 2019 election, the Liberal Democrats won more than 70 constituencies—its best result yet.

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What We’re Following

Runoff vote. Iran held a presidential runoff election on Friday, with results expected on Saturday. Masoud Pezeshkian, the only moderate that Tehran’s Guardian Council approved to run, faces hard-liner Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator and one of the most conservative candidates in the race. Whereas Pezeshkian calls for detente with the West and some social change, Jalili opposes all relations with the United States as well as any efforts to renew the 2015 nuclear deal.

Elections were scheduled after then-President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, acknowledged last week’s low voter turnout on Wednesday, and some Iranian officials expect a similar showing for the runoff. The next president will likely help select Khamenei’s successor; Iran’s supreme leader is the nation’s top decision-maker.

Orban visits Putin. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban flew to Moscow on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin—just days after visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Orban’s trip ignited backlash from fellow European Union members, who criticized the far-right leader for not following EU foreign-policy strategy. Orban was the first EU leader to meet with Putin since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Russia in April 2022, less than two months after the Russia-Ukraine war began.

Josep Borrell, the bloc’s top diplomat, preemptively said that Orban’s trip was not official EU business. Orban took over the six-month presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers on Monday.

Putin and Orban met for more than two hours on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine. However, the two leaders appeared to make little headway. Putin reiterated a past demand that Moscow will only order a cease-fire if Kyiv withdraws all of its troops from four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions. During Zelensky’s meeting with Orban on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said he would not order a truce until Russian forces leave Ukrainian soil.

The Alliance of Sahel States. The rulers of Burkina Faso and Mali arrived in Niger on Friday for a trilateral summit of the so-called Alliance of Sahel States (AES), an economic and defense pact. The three nations’ leaders will meet together on Saturday for the first time since they led successful military coups. They are expected to formally create the AES federation as well as work to establish a common currency.

The AES meets a day before the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is set to convene in Nigeria. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger announced in January that they would withdraw from ECOWAS, arguing that the bloc posed a threat to its members’ sovereignty. The region has faced six successful and two attempted coups since 2020.

What in the World?

Which Nepali political party reached an agreement on Tuesday to withdraw from the governing coalition?

A. The People’s Socialist Party, Nepal
B. The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Socialist
C. The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist
D. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Center

Odds and Ends

Among Starmer’s first orders of business was to shake Elmo’s hand. After his Labour Party won the United Kingdom’s snap elections on Thursday, Starmer shared the stage with this FP writer’s favorite Muppet. In British tradition, joke candidates run against serious politicians to offer both some levity during a tumultuous time as well as to bridge the gap between politics and the populace. Even the losing side had company—with Count Binface standing beside Sunak as he faced the Conservatives’ worst defeat in history.

And the Answer Is…

C. The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist

The party is now expected to join with the Nepali Congress party to form a national unity government, FP’s Michael Kugelman writes in South Asia Brief.

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