Only the Conservatives can fight the Labor Party hard: Rishi Sunak

London:

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will say on Monday that only his Conservatives can thwart a Labour-led government and that a vote in favor of Nigel Farage’s right-wing UK reform would undermine any chance of his party to form a strong opposition.

Appearing all but to concede defeat ahead of Thursday’s election, Sunak will appeal to voters on the political right who are considering voting for Farage’s party in protest against his Conservative government.

The Conservatives look set to be thrown out of office after 14 turbulent years marked by the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and the cost of living crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .

Opinion polls have consistently given Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labor Party a lead of around 20 points, with support for Reform potentially splitting the centre-right vote and the centrist Liberal Democrats further draining support. of the Conservatives.

Sunak will tell a rally that Reform “simply won’t win enough seats to oppose Labour”, saying the party had previously said it would be good to elect a handful of MPs.

“Imagine this: hundreds and hundreds of Labor MPs opposed by just ‘one, two, three, four, five elected MPs’,” Sunak will say, according to excerpts of his speech.

“A Labor government would be bad for our country, and an unchecked Labor government would be a disaster from which it would take decades to recover.”

Farage is one of Britain’s most recognized and controversial politicians. He has spent decades criticizing the system and the European Union and, in recent years, campaigned for Donald Trump in the United States.

It entered the elections in early June, promising to supplant the conservatives as the main party on the right.

Polls appear to show that support for Reform peaked in the second half of June, just before Farage said the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some of his candidates were dropped for racist or inappropriate comments.

Although the British electoral system means Reform could win millions of votes, the party is unlikely to win more than a handful of parliamentary seats. But this could be enough to divide the right in many areas and hand victory to the Labor Party.

Britain is likely to elect a center-left government as much of Europe swings to the right, including France, where Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally won the first round of parliamentary elections. on Sunday.

With polls showing many voters are undecided, Sunak will make a final plea for people to limit the power of the Labor Party if it comes into government, saying: “We Conservatives will stand up for you and make sure your voice is heard and that your values ​​are represented.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)