UK Labour’s landslide comes with its own perils: experts

LONDON: Labour on Friday secured a huge majority in the UK´s general election, giving it a massive mandate but also a few headaches once celebrations die down.

Before the vote, the Conservatives warned voters not to hand Labour party leader Keir Starmer the “blank cheque” of a “supermajority”, but as prime minister he will now have a majority of over 170 and five years up against a demoralised main opposition.

“The main advantages are clarity. It means the government of the day can get on with its programme, unhindered and encumbered,” Tony McNulty, lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and a Labour minister under Tony Blair, told AFP. The thumping win also gives Labour “a nice reservoir of talent” with which to fill government roles, albeit with the risk of disappointing more MPs who miss out, said McNulty, who became an MP during Labour´s 1997 landslide.

However, a “supermajority” does not have any constitutional significance in the UK, as it does in the United States, explained King´s College London professor Vernon Bogdanor.

“A government with a majority of 30 can do more or less what it wants, just as much as a government with a majority of 200,” said Bogdanor, one of the country´s leading constitutional experts.