Populist Party Gains, as Expected, in British Election

23/4/2014

By Stephen Castlemay

The populist U.K. Independence Party made sweeping gains in local elections in Britain, according to preliminary results released on Friday, shaking the country’s political establishment and leaving its mainstream parties scrambling for a response.

The right-wing party took far more votes than expected from the two parties in the center-right coalition government and from the opposition Labour Party, and won at least 150 local council seats; it held 2 before.

Though the U.K. Independence Party has yet to gain a seat in the national Parliament, its leader, Nigel Farage, said it was now “a serious player.” “The UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse,” he said on Friday.

The voting on Thursday coincided with elections for Britain’s representatives in the European Parliament. Though those results will not be announced until Sunday night, they appeared likely to reflect similar sweeping gains for Mr. Farage’s party.

The senior partner in the governing coalition, the center-right Conservative Party led by Prime Minister David Cameron, lost more than 180 council seats across Britain and lost its majority in at least 11 of the 32 councils it had controlled. The junior partner, the centrist Liberal Democrats, fared even worse, losing more than one-third of the seats it formerly held.

The Labour Party, which already had the most council seats, gained more new ones than the U.K. Independence Party did, and the populists did not appear to have won majority control of any council. But the U.K. Independence Party’s inroads came not just in traditionally conservative areas but also in Labour strongholds in the north, spreading alarm through all three of the major national parties.

With its demand for a curb on immigration and a British withdrawal from the European Union, the U.K. Independence Party has capitalized on the discontent felt by voters after years of financial crisis and austerity. And by presenting itself as an alternative to the mainstream political elite, the party is making headway in its drive to upend the country’s political system. That seemed implausible eight years ago when Mr. Cameron, newly elected as Conservative Party leader but not yet in power, described the populist party as “a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists.”

Mr. Farage, who has cultivated a jovial, straight-talking image, appeared on television Friday, dressed in a well-tailored suit and celebrating with a pint of beer.

For the moment, the U.K. Independence Party’s gains have not translated into direct political power, because its support is spread around the country, rather than dominating a particular area. The country’s electoral system puts such smaller parties at a distinct disadvantage.

“UKIP should be extremely pleased with themselves,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “But they still face this enormous hurdle of the electoral system, which is going to make it very difficult for them to convert even this level of support into parliamentary seats in 2015.”

It is not clear whether the party can sustain its current support. The populists won 16 percent of the national vote in the European Parliament elections of 2009, only to see their share slump to 3.1 percent in the national election the following year.

Mr. Bale noted that the party won about one-quarter of the votes cast on Thursday, the same share it won in the local races it contested last year.

The growing threat from the populist right has put pressure on all the main party leaders, including Ed Miliband of the Labour Party, who would ordinarily expect to reap the benefits of voter discontent a year before a general election.

Mr. Miliband said on Friday that he hoped to win back the disaffected voters who had opted for the U.K. Independence Party this time. “I am determined that over the next year, we persuade them that we can change their lives for the better,” he said.

Mr. Cameron is under pressure from the right wing of his own party, which is worried that the voter support it is losing to the U.K. Independence Party will deprive the Conservatives of power in next year’s general election. Mr. Cameron has ruled out an electoral alliance with Mr. Farage’s party.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, has also faced stiff criticism from within his party, which was once the main beneficiary when Britons wanted to cast their ballots against the political status quo. The party’s popularity has fallen sharply since it joined the coalition government with the Conservatives.

In all, 4,216 seats in 161 local councils in England and 462 seats in 11 local councils in Northern Ireland were up for election. Mayors were also being elected in four boroughs of London, and in Watford. The Greens and other smaller parties also gained some council seats in the voting, though on a much smaller scale than the U.K. Independence Party.

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