The rising of anti-establishment candidates in UK 2024 elections- Reform UK, Socialists and Workers Party
The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July to elect 650 members of Parliament to the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The governing Conservative Party, led by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labour Party led by the centre-left establishment leader Keir Starmer.
The election was the first victory for the Labour Party since the 2005 general election, and ended the Conservative Party’s fourteen-year tenure as the primary governing party. Labour achieved a 172-seat majority and a total of 411 seats. This was the party’s second-best result in terms of seat share after the 1997 general election. However, the party’s vote share of 33.7 per cent was the smallest of any majority government in British electoral history, significantly lower than 40% that was achieved by the Jeremy Corbyn , the anti-establishment leader of the Labour Party in 2017, and only slightly higher than 32.1 percent that was achieved by labour party in 2019 elections.
In reality, Keir Starmer benefited by the rising power of anti-establishment right, led by the charismatic figure of Farage and the Reform UK.
Reform UK
Reform UK received 14.3 percent of votes, ranking the third largest party in UK, and Nigel Farage has been one of its five MPs elected (there were no MPs elected in the past). Under a proportional representation system, the party would have been able to elect 100 MPs. Reform UK is the largest right wing anti establishment party, focusing on an independent role of UK in the global scene, peaceful and business oriented , against the establishment of multinationals and the woke movement.
| Party | Votes | Of total | MPs | |
| 1 | Labour Party | 9,704,655 | 33.70% | 411 |
| 2 | Conservative Party | 6,827,311 | 23.70% | 121 |
| 3 | Reform UK | 4,117,221 | 14.30% | 5 |
| 4 | Liberal Democrats | 3,519,199 | 12.20% | 72 |
| 5 | Green Party of England and Wales | 1,841,888 | 6.40% | 4 |
| 6 | Scottish National Party | 724,758 | 2.50% | 9 |
| 7 | Sinn Féin | 210,891 | 0.73% | 7 |
| 8 | Workers Party | 210,194 | 0.73% | 0 |
| 9 | Plaid Cymru | 194,811 | 0.70% | 4 |
| 10 | Democratic Unionist Party | 172,058 | 0.60% | 5 |
| 11 | Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | 117,191 | 0.40% | 1 |
| 12 | Ulster Unionist Party | 94,779 | 0.30% | 1 |
| 13 | Social Democratic and Labour Party | 86,861 | 0.30% | 2 |
| 14 | Traditional Unionist Voice | 48,685 | 0.20% | 1 |
| x | Independents | 564,243 | 2.00% | 6 |
Workers Party of Britain
The Workers Party of Britain (WPB), also called the Workers Party of Great Britain (WPGB) or Workers Party GB is a socialist and socially conservative political party in the United Kingdom, led by and identified with politician George Galloway. The party was founded in 2019 and won a parliamentary seat when Galloway won the Rochdale by-election in February 2024. One day before the elections, the establishment run an unprecedented smearing campaign so as to defame George Galloway.
This is not the first time the establishment of war companies spreads rumours against George Galloway before elections, so as to discredit him and to lose elections. On 28 October 1986, the Daily Mirror, in a front-page story by Alastair Campbell, claimed Galloway had spent £20,000 in expenses and had been “enjoying a life of luxury. An internal investigation and later, an independent auditor, both cleared him of the accusation of any misuse of funds.
A similar move by tabloid newspapers took place in 1987, and in 2003 to discredit him. The Daily Telegraph and Christian Science Monitor also published stories stating that it had documentary evidence that Galloway had received money from the UN and the Iraqi government. However, both accusations were proved lacking evidence or sophisticated forgeries.
Despite the defamation from the newspapers George Galloway got 29.2 percent, just few votes short from the labour candidate that got -18% less than the labour party (Galloway) got in previous elections in this constituency.
| Rochdale | ||||
| VOTES | SHARE % | CHANGE %PTS. | ||
| Labour | Paul Waugh | 13,027 | 32.8 | -18 |
| Workers Party of Britain | George Galloway | 11,587 | 29.2 | 29.2 |
| Reform UK | Michael Howard | 6,773 | 17.1 | 17.1 |
| Conservative | Paul Ellison | 4,273 | 10.8 | -20.8 |
| Liberal Democrat | Andy Kelly | 2,816 | 7.1 | -0.4 |
| Green | Martyn Savin | 1,212 | 3.1 | 1.2 |
Jody McIntyre , The Workers Party of Britain candidate in Birmingham Yardley was also very close to be elected, getting 29.3 per cent, vs just 31.2 percent that the labour candidate got.
| Birmingham Yardley | ||||
| VOTES | SHARE % | CHANGE %PTS. | ||
| Labour | Jess Phillips | 11,275 | 31.2 | -26.9 |
| Workers Party of Britain | Jody McIntyre | 10,582 | 29.3 | 29.3 |
| Reform UK | Nora Kamberi | 5,061 | 14 | 14 |
| Liberal Democrat | Roger Harmer | 3,634 | 10.1 | 1.1 |
| Conservative | Yvonne Clements | 3,634 | 10.1 | -16.7 |
| Green | Roxanne Green | 1,958 | 5.4 | 4.2 |
Very good results also in Birmingham Hodge Hill & Solihull North and in Blackburn where James Giles and Craig Murray were very close to be elected.
| Birmingham Hodge Hill & Solihull North | ||||
| VOTES | SHARE % | CHANGE %PTS. | ||
| Labour | Liam Byrne | 10,655 | 31.2 | -28.7 |
| Workers Party of Britain | James Giles | 9,089 | 26.6 | 26.6 |
| Reform UK | Jamie Pullin | 6,456 | 18.9 | 18.9 |
| Conservative | Caroline Clapper | 4,634 | 13.6 | -15 |
| Green | Imran Khan | 2,360 | 6.9 | 3.4 |
| Liberal Democrat | Qasim Esak | 942 | 2.8 | -1.6 |
| Blackburn | ||||
| VOTES | SHARE % | CHANGE %PTS. | ||
| Independent | Adnan Hussain | 10,518 | 27.1 | 27.1 |
| Labour | Kate Hollern | 10,386 | 26.7 | -39.3 |
| Workers Party of Britain | Craig Murray | 7,105 | 18.3 | 18.3 |
| Reform UK | Tommy Temperley | 4,844 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
| Conservative | Jamie McGowan | 3,474 | 8.9 | -14.4 |
| Green | Denise Morgan | 1,416 | 3.6 | 2 |
| Liberal Democrat | Adam Waller-Slack | 689 | 1.8 | -0.6 |
Overall, these 4 candidates were very close to be elected, meaning that next time, the Workers Party of Britain will be contesting at least these 4 seats, or even more. The party got more than 10% in 10 constituencies.
| CONSTITUENCY | SHARE % | |
| 1 | Birmingham Yardley | 29.3 |
| 2 | Rochdale | 29.2 |
| 3 | Birmingham Hodge Hill & Solihull North | 26.6 |
| 4 | Blackburn | 18.3 |
| 5 | Derby South | 13.9 |
| 6 | Bolton South & Walkden | 12.7 |
| 7 | Manchester Rusholme | 12.6 |
| 8 | Peterborough | 12.1 |
| 9 | Oldham East & Saddleworth | 11.6 |
| 10 | Gorton & Denton | 10.3 |
This is the first time in recent period that an anti-establishment party, other than left leaning Labour of Jeremy Corbyn, gets so close to elect so many candidates in UK.
Jeremy Corbyn
Corbyn self-identifies as a socialist and a “mainstream social democrat’. He advocates reversing austerity cuts to public services and some welfare funding made since 2010, as well as renationalisation of public utilities and the railways.[ A longstanding anti-war and anti-nuclear activist, he supports a foreign policy of military non-interventionism and unilateral nuclear disarmament. Despite unanimous support from his Constituency Labour Party Corbyn was not permitted to stand as a Labour parliamentary candidate. After announcing on 24 May 2024 that he would stand as an independent parliamentary candidate for Islington North, he was fully expelled from the Labour Party. Despite the smearing campaign against Jeremy Corbyn from Keir Starmer the current leader of the Labour party and his mechanism, and not allowing him to be candidate for the labour Party, Corbyn was re-elected in his constituency (Islington North) getting 49.2% as an independent candidate, whilst the candidate of the Labour Party got 34.4%! This is a big slap to the establishment, especially to the war lobby that seem to be behind Keir Starmer.
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